Joholmes.com
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Guest Blogs
  • About Me
  • Posting Policy
  • Background
  • Contact

Schools ‘not in business of running a pool’

28/2/2015

1 Comment

 
PictureCowboy builder's school pool
Poolgate Update

At last, and for the first time, the Boards of Trustees (BoTs) of Waiheke High School and Te Huruhi School have spoken publicly about the Waiheke Local Board’s proposal to site a swimming pool on school grounds. No thank you say the schools unless the ratepayer picks up all the tab.

Here are some notes taken by a member of the public who attended Thursday’s WLB meeting quoting the hapless Andrew Walters who spoke on behalf of the BoTs. Mr Walters said: 

“The schools are not in the business of running a pool” 

“A third party would be required to manage it” 

“The schools do not want to be owners of a pool or be left with a half completed pool.” 

“Wherever it might end up, the school can not let its construction interrupt the build of the school.”

“Waiheke High School has no preference for either of the two sites identified in the report as long as there is no liability to the school.”

“The Board needs a good business model for the running of the pool.” 

In summary, the schools do not want a swimming pool unless the ratepayer pays ALL the costs.

In other words we are back to the Waiheke Recreation (school gym) Centre model where the Ministry of Education provided the land, the ratepayer paid for the building and has had to pay ever since to maintain the facility, despite being locked out of use of the centre for 90% of the time by the schools. This is exactly what I’ve been saying for over a year.

Big questions remain about the $25,000 handed to the school’s BoTs for a report the Waiheke community has yet to see. 

  • How much did the report actually cost? 
  • Where is the invoice for the report? 
  • If it didn’t cost $25,000 what happened to the reminder of the money? 
  • Did John Stansfield, partner of hard left Green Party list MP Denise Roche and Chair of the Waiheke High School Board of Trustees at the time the money was handed over, have a resolution of the Board requesting a swimming pool on school grounds? Why was Stansfield suddenly removed from his position as Chair? 
  • Who is the third party who will manage the pool? 
  • What will be their contribution if any to the cost? 

Many of these questions were asked through a LGOIMA (local government official information act) request which Auckland Council have answered by handing over the wrong report. A complaint is now with Local Government Ombudsman. 

If you ask the public if they want a bar of gold each at no cost to them, of course they will say yes. If you ask the public if they want a bar of gold each for which they will have to pay the market price plus interest on the cost of borrowing ad infinitum they will say no.  

It’s like that with a swimming pool. If you ask the question ‘do you want a swimming pool’ the answer is yes. If you ask the question ‘do you want a swimming pool which you have to pay for out of your rates plus a targeted to pay for ongoing costs ad infinitum’ I’m willing to bet the answer would be no.  


It is thoroughly irresponsible for elected representatives to have handed over $25,000 of their money without any accountability. It is downright criminal of them to commission another report costing a further $25,000 of ratepayers’ money for ‘sketches and drawings’ for a pool adjacent to the Waiheke Recreation Centre when it is abundantly clear the school does not want the pool and the WLB does not have the money to build one.

The Green Party inspired Waiheke Local Board needs to come clean, admit they made a promise to the Waiheke community they could not keep and stop throwing good money after bad to try and save face. 
If this is how they waste our money now imagine the consequences if they had total control of our rates. Frightening isn’t it.

1 Comment

Chair’s vanity project gets more funding

27/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Chair of the Waiheke Local Board Paul Walden is wasting even more of the Board’s few remaining funds on one his pet projects, the Bridle Bridge to Brigadoon.

Few clues were given in last August’s local board meeting agenda as to what exactly was intended when the WLB voted more than $50,000 for ‘plans and drawings’ for a bridle bridge over O’Brien Road.

Back then it looked like an overbridge was planned to take horses more safely across O’Brien Rd, but six months later more details are revealed in the latest board agenda. If anything the reality is even worse than at first thought. There is an overbridge but it doesn’t go across the road. Instead it crosses a tiny creek on the same side of the road where a footpath and bridge across the creek already exist. A further $76,000 is to be allocated to this project from the Auckland Transport Capital Fund, one of the few remaining sources of funds left to the discretion of local boards.

The Auckland Transport fund is intended for small transport related projects such as additional footpaths or bus shelters or road safety that benefit the wider community. For example, there is a long outstanding list of footpaths asked for by residents, similarly for seal extensions of the island’s many unsealed roads. But, as far as I am aware, nobody has asked for a bridle bridge in a green belt area of the island where nobody lives. Except one.

This is a pure vanity project for local board Chair Paul Walden, whose love of horse riding is well known. Very few horses or pedestrians use O’Brien Rd. The only possible justification might have been to provide a safer passage for horses from the Riding Club on busy Onetangi Rd to bridle paths around Onetangi Sports Park, but even that lame excuse is null and void since a safer bridle path has only just been built for that very purpose from the riding club around the golf club lease area into OSP.

No, this is just one huge waste of ratepayers’ money.

Ratepayers on Waiheke are heartily sick of having their money wasted on vanity projects for the narcissist Walden. Vanity projects include his infamous $25,000 junket around the Gulf, his $10,000 slush fund, his $50,000 for a school pool that will never be built and now $130,000 for a bridle bridge to nowhere.

Having lost the people of Waiheke $12 million dollars in his first year and only able to come up with vanity projects like this bridle bridge one has to wonder if his narcissism isn’t turning into something more sinister. First he gets rid of his deputy for no reason, and now his board is talking about ‘going it alone’ because that other narcissist, Len Brown, wants everyone’s money for his own vanity project the CRL.

A sane response to Brown’s cuts to Council services would be to agitate for reforms to the mayoralty. Instead there’s a whiff of insanity in the Waiheke air as Walden gets desperate to blame anyone but himself for his own and his Board’s inadequacies and failures.

Putting Walden in charge of all ratepayers’ money would be a certain recipe for bankruptcy. The lunatics really would be running the asylum if voters are daft enough to fall for this latest insane idea. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.


0 Comments

Billie Jordan wins New Zealand Local Hero of the Year Award

25/2/2015

4 Comments

 
Picture
Tonight Waiheke Island is as proud as it could be to hear the news that Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero of the Year Award winner is our own Billie Jordan. We all know how much Billie deserves this award but it’s fantastic news that her achievements for her work for the Hip Op-eration Crew have earned her nationwide recognition. Billie received the award a few minutes ago at tonight’s awards dinner in Auckland.

The Hip Op-eration Crew were surprise performers at tonight’s ceremonies at the Langham Hotel. They made a guest appearance with members of the former South Auckland dance crew Krash to a standing ovation from the star-studded audience. “We were overwhelmed by the warmth and generosity of the audience response,” said Crew member Dianne Bartlett.

Tonight’s award is the culmination of three year’s hard work for Billie to take an unlikely group of ageing islanders and make them into a world-wide dance sensation, made famous through the New Zealand Documentary of the Year film Hip Hop-eration.

Billie has achieved her ambition of showing the world that age is no barrier to having fun and achieving more. Her genius was in teaching the Crew hip-hop. In doing so she bridged the age gap and made older people relevant to the young and vice versa.

All Waiheke will be thrilled to hear this fantastic news. Congratulations Billie. 


4 Comments

More pool porkies

25/2/2015

1 Comment

 
PicturePorkies in the new school pool
Is the Waiheke Local Board Chairman Paul Walden telling porkies or is his recent behaviour just another example of incompetence?

At Mayor Len Brown’s recent public meeting (on Council’s 10 Year Plan) at the Ostend Hall, Walden was asked directly by a member of the public when the Waiheke community would finally see the School Swimming Pool Report that Waiheke ratepayers stomped up $25,000 for a year ago. Just to clarify, this is the Report, prepared by consultants for the Waiheke High School and Te Huruhi School Boards of Trustees and paid for with ratepayers’ money

According to Walden, this Report was going to be available to view last April. That’s April 2014. It’s almost April 2015 and we’re still waiting. A resident’s recent query of Board Member and Swimming Pool spokesperson Becs Ballard elicited the response that the Report belonged to the schools and wasn’t available to the public. Sorry sweetheart, the use of public money doesn’t work that way.

So the question was asked again at the public meeting – when will the Waiheke community finally see the School Swimming Pool Report that Waiheke ratepayers stomped up $25,000 for a year ago? This time, according to Walden, the Report would be on the Waiheke Local Board agenda for this Thursday's meeting. Well, I’ve looked and no it’s not. Instead the Board has invited a hapless Waiheke High School Board Trustee to give a verbal report at their Public Forum. Now, hold it right there. Verbal reports at Public Forum do not constitute a formal report back and they don’t form part of the minutes of the meeting.

This is outrageous.

It is even more outrageous when ratepayers consider that, only a month ago, the Board handed over a second $25,000 of ratepayers’ money to the school for ‘concept sketches’ for a ‘potential’ pool on school land. 

This community has been working towards a ‘community pool’ for many years now. Just like all major projects, we know that good things take time and to that end, successive Waiheke Community Boards and the first Waiheke Local Board worked with Council officers, consultants and various local swimming pool committees and groups to bring this to fruition. Community fund raisers have helped focus these efforts and the necessary steps to becoming a Council project were all being ticked off. Until this Local Board got in and chucked the lot away.

When one considers that this Board has now lost Waiheke all hope of ever getting a ‘community pool’ and instead continues to throw good money after bad to provide the schools with their own pool,  I am at a loss to think of a greater waste of $50,000 of ratepayers’ money. What’s more, they are now denying the Waiheke community the right to be involved and the right to have access to public information.

Walden must persuade the School Board Trustee to table the missing report at this week’s Local Board meeting, so it can be added to the minutes of the agenda for us all to see. His continued covert support for a school pool flies in the face of selecting a ‘community pool’ site for the longer term. Walden needs to come clean or is he so dirty he can no longer tell the difference between truth and lies?  


1 Comment

Stop wasting ratepayers’ money on bogus ‘consultation’

24/2/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
In local government, two notions of ‘democracy’ vie with each other: one is that politicians are ‘elected as a delegate to represent the collective will of the people’; the other is that they are elected as a representative who is ‘empowered to use your ability, talents, wisdom, and knowledge to represent the people by asserting your best judgement’. So says the Handbook for Elected Members issued by Local Government New Zealand

It is a relatively new notion that elected representatives must go to their communities again and again to ‘consult’ them about they think of this plan or that plan, this budget or that budget, this vision or that idea. It is also a very expensive notion and one that has the potential to do more harm to democracy than almost any other. In New Zealand, successive amendments to the 1989 legislation built on its basic philosophical direction of providing for public participation in local government.

The reality is there’s only so far those elected can take notice of the diverse opinions of their communities until they are forced to make some real decisions based on all the facts. So, there’s always someone who is going to be disappointed. Accusations of ‘not listening’ or ‘paying lip service’ are hurled at the politicians and no-one is really satisfied. Least of all those rate payers and tax payers who quietly get on with their lives.

What has happened is that a HUGE industry has grown up around the consultation game and this in turn has led to whole departments of council staff and whole businesses of professional consultants getting in on the act and eating up large amounts of rate payers’ and tax payers’ dollars. Their costs are blitzed only by the glossy consultation brochures they produce.

After years of this charade it is not surprising that far from ‘engaging’ communities to ‘have their say’ the whole thing is one big voter turn-off (except for those professional whingers and moaners who have designed their lives around it).

Why? - Because nobody still believes for one second that anything they say will be listened to by the powers that be.

Consultation has become a ‘dirty word’. Council questionnaires are of dubious quality, would not stand scrutiny by any professional, unbiased survey organisation and are now designed to be part of Council’s spin machine.

As a latest example of this, I refer to the Whaleoil blog.

AUCKLAND COUNCIL’S DODGY SURVEY DELIVERING AS EXPECTED  

The Auckland Council’s farcical and illegal survey is now in full PR spin mode as the boffins try to tell the story that Aucklanders want tolls.

Motorway tolls are gaining far more support from Aucklanders than lifting rates and fuel taxes to fill a $12 billion transport funding gap over 30 years.

A snapshot Auckland Council has given the Herald of public feedback received in consultations over its 10-year budget also shows more than twice as much support for a $10.3 billion enhanced transport programme than for a stripped-down $6.9 billion version it warns will be the Super City’s lot if it cannot raise extra money.

The consultations began on January 23 and remain open for submissions until March 16.

Tolls have been backed by 51 per cent of 3418 responses received so far to a council mailout, and 17 per cent have indicated part support.

With a population of over 1.5 million to receive just 3418 responses is laughable. It is only 0.22% of a percent. Len Brown will no doubt claim this as an endorsement.  

There weren’t any choices on the form. Nobody could choose ‘nothing’ so it’s a narrowly focussed and deliberate set of questions to answer anyway.

But that said the survey is also unlawful. It contained no analysis of each alternative with costings for example. That is required under the Local Government Act.

I raised this issue myself some weeks back.


It is one heck of a power struggle brewing between Auckland Council and the Government. I suspect it is going to get worse.
1 Comment

Backward Board has no vision for Waiheke’s future

23/2/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
‘Councils exist to provide a limited range of core services. (Auckland) Council's diverse objectives indicate it is straying far beyond these core functions, to ratepayers' cost.’   David Seymour, MP for Epsom

Core services include roads, parks, libraries, and refuse collection. Looking at the Waiheke Local Board (WLB) long term plan as part of Auckland Council’s 10 year plan we see a perfect example of David’s words. 

The WLB Plan identifies five main goals for the next ten years (2016-2025). Let us look at each in terms of core services.


  1. Support construction of pensioner and community housing. Non-core. Government responsibility
  2. Continue to maintain and develop our local parks. Well yes, they have to whether or not the WLB exists
  3. Foster the establishment of an environmental hub. Non-core service.
  4. Continue to support and develop community environment and restoration programmes. Standard practice on Waiheke although sadly diminished under this Board.
  5. Remediate Little Oneroa Stream. I know this is unnecessary from the environmental reports during my three years on the first WLB. The first Waiheke Local Board commissioned a report looking at the whole catchment area. The main problem is one of perception rather than reality. A waste of time and money. At best this is a minor small local improvement project.

So the best the WLB can come up with for a ten year plan to shape the future of Waiheke, after endless public consultation, at a cost to the ratepayer in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, is two status quo goals of maintaining current services, two non-core goals and one small local improvement project. That’s it. 

Over the next ten years the population of Waiheke will keep expanding at a rate of over 200 new residents a year. That’s 2000 more people living on the island by 2025. There is continuing growth in tourism, which will only accelerate now two ferry services are operating from the city. That means more tourist accommodation, more tourism ventures, and more tourism services will be needed.  

What it all adds up to is increasing stress on local infrastructure.  Yet the WLB’s plan does not even mention a single goal aimed at providing core infrastructure services for our increasing population and visitor numbers. No mention of improving roads, no mention of new footpaths, no mention of expanding sports and recreation facilities, no mention of expanding the facilities at the Matiatia transport hub.  

The only mention of Matiatia is around the local board ‘advocating’ for local decision-making including management and control of the land at Matiatia. Dream on McDuff. No actual representation of the needs of residents and visitors to progress the many plans already in place to expand facilities there.

The BIG promise of a community swimming pool in three years, a promise on which they were elected, is reduced to an area of ‘advocacy’ during the next ten years, yet the Board continues to pump money ($50k so far) into ‘plans’ to progress a school pool to which the community will have little or no access. If ever there was an example of a Council body wasting ratepayers money on a non-core activity it is this. 

Last but not least is the total waste of money implicit in the WLB’s goal for next year of commencing ‘development of a resource recovery centre and composting facility’. Waiheke is fortunate to have one of the most modern and efficient waste recovery centres in Auckland. No longer do we have to pay through the nose to be allowed to sort our own rubbish, knee deep in mud as we did in the ‘bad old days’ of hard left Green party list MP Denise Roche’s insanitary Waste Resources Trust dump.  

It is Roche’s legacy that we still have the environmentally unfriendly plastic red bags littering our streets for dogs to open and strew their contents around the neighbourhood. But what Denise wants Denise gets, so off we go again trying to reinvent the wheel, to turn Waiheke back into a supposed Green utopian past which, in reality, was a dystopian nightmare. Thank goodness those days are behind us. 

Never have local politicians been so out of sync with the needs of their community. Looking backwards will not solve the problems and expectations of a better future for Waiheke.   


1 Comment

It’s only intelligent to keep out the Greens

22/2/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureImagine how the lady would sing
The Greens dislike New Zealand and New Zealanders (although they say they like Aotearoa and Aotearoeans) so much they would happily welcome any terrorist or terrorist organisation onto New Zealand soil. If they can’t welcome them onto home soil they would be glad to send sensitive information concerning national security overseas, after all it’s the only sustainable and fair thing to do.

This being so why would you let any one of them near the watchdog parliamentary committee looking after the nation’s security. The Labour leader’s only crime, apart from being male and white, in stopping Metiria Turei from getting anywhere near influencing our national security was a failure to consult her beforehand as he was required to do.

Labour and the Greens then compounded the spat between ‘friends’ by openly criticising each other as explained in Rodney Hide’s column in today’s Herald.


Labour and the Greens are not getting along. It's tricky. They must show they can work together but Andrew Little must also show he's boss. We won't elect to Government bickering parties - but we don't want to vote Labour and get Green.

The latest spat was a bit of thoughtlessness. I doubt it was calculated. But it escalated and the failure to keep it inhouse proves Labour and the Greens need to work on their relationship.

Little hadn't consulted the Greens about appointing Labour MP David Shearer to the Intelligence and Security Committee. Yawn. That's despite having a statutory obligation to do so. Yawn.

The Greens learned of the snub through the media. Whoops. Metiria Turei said Little had acted "unlawfully" and she was expecting a call from him "quite soon".

Little defended leaving Turei out in the cold, saying he wanted someone with "skills, understanding and experience".

Ouch.

When told the Greens were upset, Little said: "Ask them again tomorrow."

What he had planned, he didn't say. But whatever it was, it didn't work. The new day dawned and the Greens were still frothing.

Green MP Mojo Mathers strode into Parliament to tell how Little's dismissal of Turei was offensive to her and "many other women". Little's failure to appoint Turei, she explained, was because of his "male privilege" bubbling up. That's the worst thing to a Green.

Gender doesn't matter to them - unless you are male. And nor does ethnicity - unless you are white. Little is both.

Mathers explained Turei would have brought to the committee an "understanding of what powerlessness and humiliation feels like". That's probably true but I want the members of the Security Committee projecting power and confidence.

But then I am a privileged male and naturally side with Little. Our spooks and spies are busy enough battling terrorism without having to listen to Turei. Besides, she opposes Intelligence and Security.

The Greens and Labour must learn to keep their differences inhouse.

They could learn a thing or two from the Nats who have closed ranks to limit the damage over the Mike Sabin affair. It isn’t right and the Nats have a lot of answering to do but, so far, they managed to send their dirty laundry to their in-house dry cleaners.

0 Comments

Kryptonite for Socialism

22/2/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureACT leader David Seymour and host Alan Gibbs
Never having been a member of any political party it is not surprising that I have never been to a political party conference, so when a friend invited me to ACT’s I thought I’d expand my political horizon and go along. It had the added incentives of being at the famous Gibbs Farm outdoor sculpture park, good speakers including notable fellow blogger David Farrar (Kiwiblog), and of course ACT leader Epsom MP David Seymour, a young man I admire. I wasn’t disappointed. The setting was spectacular, the speeches were interesting, and the day well organised. 

The 230 attendees were a broad spectrum of ages, many of them young, all of them eager to hear how Seymour and the party was rising to the challenge of staying relevant with only a single MP in parliament and a meagre 0.7% of the vote in last year’s General Election.

Under the theme ‘New Zealand The Way You Want It’ I found myself in agreement with most of what was said. This is not surprising given my political compass shows I am slightly to the right of centre politically and a libertarian when it comes to matters of authority. You can take the test for yourself. It’s on the ‘About Me’ section of this website. My compass can be summed up as I don’t like being told what to do by anyone but especially by left wing governments.

David Seymour was the star of the show. I was first impressed with David when I heard him speak in a debate on Waiheke during the 2011 General Election. He held his own against Jacinda Ardern and Nikki Kaye and wiped the floor with hard left Green Party list MP Denise Roche. His speech yesterday reminded the audience of the party’s core values of small government, low taxes, and individual responsibility. Who could argue that these aren’t necessary in an age when big government is grabbing most of our hard earned money only to waste it on policies that disadvantage rather than advantage the less well off and reduce the nation’s productive capacity.

As David said, it is the mission of ACT ‘to stop the centre ground in New Zealand politics moving left’. The National Party has successfully made the centre ground its own but there is always the clear and present danger that they will cross the line to appease the left wing in its own ranks and become too enamoured with increasing government power. “We are for New Zealanders who most want to see a smaller role for government” David said, “this means giving a greater role in decision making to businesses and communities”.

Influential blogger David Farrar, a National supporter, analysed ACT’s strengths and weaknesses with a view to offering some advice about how they might grow their vote and so achieve the party’s goal of 5MPs at the next General Election. He first praised the party for its altruism, a rarity in politics, in promoting Charter Schools in line with its philosophy of less government in education. Charter Schools are flourishing in South Auckland where ACT cannot expect to be rewarded with a single vote. Perhaps, he suggested, it was time they focussed on policies that would reap rewards in terms of votes and suggested two possibilities, an attack on corporate welfare and support for a euthanasia bill.

Other speakers included conference host Stephen Berry, who made a pitch for the mayoralty of Auckland. He stood against Brown in 2013 under the ‘Affordable Auckland’ ticket. He outlined the well known and well understood anti-mayor sentiment in the nation’s largest city. He rightly railed against Brown’s big spending, big debt, and big taxation while cutting core Council services.

Five young ACT supporters told us their thoughts on the theme of the conference and what they wanted for New Zealand in the future. They were all bright, articulate and interesting speeches with the audience picking David Howells, who talked about the future prosperity of the country arising from a diverse nation of new immigrants, as the winner of the $2000 prize.

Other speakers gave plenty of food for thought that I will be referring to in future blogs.

In summary I can say it was a most enjoyable and interesting day. I talked to icons of the party like Richard Prebble, speaker and venue host Alan Gibbs, who David Seymour described as ‘Kryptonite for Socialism’. I found myself in agreement with much of what was said and left thinking that i
f Gibbs is 'Kryptonite for Socialism' then Seymour is doubly toxic to that brand of coercive philosophy

The party is in good hands with their leader David Seymour who is only 31 years old. He has already shown a politically maturity in advance of his years. His age is his biggest advantage in being able to re-vitalise the party. He has a following of clever, articulate young men and women who are active on campus and in the community. The future of the ACT Party is theirs. 


0 Comments

Advice to Brown - when you’re in a hole stop digging

20/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
This was the advice given to Len Brown by ACT MP for Epsom David Seymour. In a Herald article Seymour gave a perfect summary of why Auckland ratepayers have every right to feel hard done by under a Labour controlled Council. It’s a must read. 

David Seymour: Auckland Council needs to stop and take a breath

A few weeks ago Auckland Council voted by a narrow majority to impose grotesquely large rate increases on thousands of Auckland's ratepayers. The increases are staggering: 126,000 households will face increases of 10 per cent or more, 25,000 of 20 per cent or more, and almost 4000 of more than 40 per cent.

Has the council lost its collective mind? Even if this were justified - which it is not - you would at least expect a transition to a new rating structure.

But the mayor didn't want to "tinker around the edges". The council voted to implement this in one brutal blow. Late last week the fightback started. An angry council meeting has led to some of these decisions being brought back for review.

The increased pressure on rates is largely due to three factors: setting the Uniform Annual General Charge (UAGC) at far too low a share of rates revenue; not having a gradual transition to a property value basis for rating; and a surge in council spending.

The idea of having a UAGC is that while capital values give a rough idea of capacity to pay, they are a poor indicator of a household's use of council resources. Where possible, it should be users of council-provided services who pay.

The average UAGC across the previous eight Auckland councils accounted for 18 per cent of rates revenue. By law it can go as high as 30 per cent, which would reduce the unfair burden placed on households with higher property values.

A higher UAGC would be much fairer for the retired couple or widow living in a house that over time has become valuable, but whose income is now not at all large. Their use of council resources is low, yet the council intends to hit them hard.

The council plan sees the UAGC fall to 12 per cent of rates revenue. It is shameful.

The second aggravating factor is the decision to not have a transitional period to determining rates predominantly on property values. Fairness would mandate that these changes be phased in.

For now, the large cost increases are focused on a subset of Auckland households. But in future everybody will pay, due to what is perhaps our biggest challenge - the council's spending surge.

Grandiose spending plans are driving projected rate rises of 4-5 per cent a year to 2022. The draft annual plan has capital expenditure running at more than 10 per cent a year from 2017 to 2020.

The council's debt level is set to nearly triple in just 10 years, rising from $4.8 billion to $12.5 billion by 2022. And who could possibly believe there won't be cost-overruns pushing this even higher?

What happens if interest rates rise more than expected?

Last month, international ratings agency Standard & Poor's put Auckland Council's 'AA' long-term credit rating on negative watch because of concerns about rising debt.

And remember, the rating is only 'AA' because ratepayers are on the hook for whatever might happen.

When you're in a hole, you should stop digging. This council is instead digging all the more furiously.

Auckland's problems are entirely manageable. We just need some commonsense, fairness, and a degree of realism about our options.

Councils exist to provide a limited range of core services. This council's diverse objectives indicate it is straying far beyond these core functions, to ratepayers' cost.

David Seymour is MP for Epsom and leader of the Act Party.

If only other Auckland MPs were so eloquent in their opposition to the destruction of their city under the Brown NightMayor. 

I will be watching Seymour in action at the ACT Party Conference tomorrow. There are some excellent speakers and I will be very interested to hear their views, particularly around Auckland, amalgamation, out of control local government and the rise and rise of corporate welfare that is fast becoming a blight on National’s tenure in office.

0 Comments

ISIS fanatics make Marvel-ous supervillains 

20/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
When I was a child I loved DC and Marvel comics. The fight between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ was all so clear with superheroes always triumphing over supervillains. What I found odd was there were a few kids who sided with the ‘baddies’ and made them their anti-heroes. 

I was under no illusion that these were anything but fantasies, that supernatural powers did not exist no matter how useful they could be in solving the problems of the world. 

Going to Sunday School was a similar experience to reading fantasy comics. Jesus Christ did all the right things for the right reasons but lacked the panache and charisma of Green Lantern or Superman.

At the end of the day I concluded that both sorts of superheroes were unnatural, unbelievable and unnecessary. In other words I grew up. 

I understand the certainty and comfort that belief in supernatural beings brings in an uncertain world. I am tolerant of religious beliefs, but only up to the point that they start interfering with my world. Sadly, too many believers in the supernatural don’t have the same tolerance of unbelievers. 

ISIS
is the latest manifestation of religious nutters determined to force their belief system on others. They need to be dealt with but it is no use hiding our heads in the sand about their motivation. They are religious fanatics pure and simple and not understanding that is to not understand the problem as Kiwiblog explains in an excellent article quoting Graeme Wood’s. Here are some extracts with David Farrar’s comments:

What Islamic State really wants February 19th, 2015 at 9:00 am by David Farrar

Graeme Wood at The Atlantic has a huge article on the Islamic State. It is a must read, especially for those who think ISIL is just another bunch of terrorists like Al Qaeda and that what motivates them are issues such as Palestine, US foreign policy, drone strikes, depictions of Mohammed etc.

Again I encourage people to take half an hour or so to read the entire article. It is hard to summarise. But a few extracts:

The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.

So a summary of what we know:

We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world.

The key point being, that ISIL is not a terrorist group. The tactics to defeat it are different.

And yet the risks of escalation are enormous. The biggest proponent of an American invasion is the Islamic State itself. The provocative videos, in which a black-hooded executioner addresses President Obama by name, are clearly made to draw America into the fight. An invasion would be a huge propaganda victory for jihadists worldwide.

So it is vital to stop their expansion, and push them back.

It would be facile, even exculpatory, to call the problem of the Islamic State “a problem with Islam.” The religion allows many interpretations, and Islamic State supporters are morally on the hook for the one they choose. And yet simply denouncing the Islamic State as un-Islamic can be counterproductive, especially if those who hear the message have read the holy texts and seen the endorsement of many of the caliphate’s practices written plainly within them.

Muslims can say that slavery is not legitimate now, and that crucifixion is wrong at this historical juncture. Many say precisely this. But they cannot condemn slavery or crucifixion outright without contradicting the Koran and the example of the Prophet. “The only principled ground that the Islamic State’s opponents could take is to say that certain core texts and traditional teachings of Islam are no longer valid,” Bernard Haykel says. That really would be an act of apostasy.

Just as most Christians say the Old Testament is no longer valid.

I agree that it is Islam that needs to reform itself, but bullies are bullies and the only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them. Root them out on your own soil. Help others root them out on theirs. 

Best of all, stop believing in supernatural beings. It really is a pastime, but a potentially lethal one, for those who haven’t grown up yet.
0 Comments

How Len Brown brought Tammany Hall to Auckland Town Hall

18/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Tammany Hall is name given to the system of political patronage that allowed unelected elites to control the Democratic Party in New York for a hundred and fifty years. It only ended when the party reformed itself in the 1960s through the efforts of the New York Committee for Democratic Voters. Mayor Len Brown is responsible for the introduction of Tammany Hall to Auckland by allowing unelected tribal elites to vote on all Council committees and in all Council meetings.  

It happened because of the Mayor’s desperate need to hold onto power after Whaleoil exposed his affair with his mistress, carried on in the Ngati Whatua room of the Town Hall. I’m sure you, like me, wondered at the subdued response from tribal elites. Given the shouts of indignation and racism from any tribal elite when there is a real or imaginary slight to their ‘mana’ this was very odd indeed.   

As any bully knows, when you’ve got someone by the short and curlies their hearts and minds will surely follow.  Why make a fuss when you have the power of the blackmailer to get everything you want? Brown needs the tribal and church vote in South Auckland to make sure he continues as Mayor, rather in the same way that Andrew Little needs the race based Maori seats in parliament to stand any chance of ever being elected again.   

Publicly there may have been little or nothing said, but the price has been extracted in the form of a loss of democracy for the people of Auckland and rise in power and influence of corporate iwi and their tribal barons.   

Whatever the tribal elites ask for they get. Take for example the ‘mana whenua’ provisions in the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan (PAUP). These have already come into effect. For no better reason than a member of the tribal elite says it’s so, 3600 sites have been identified by the elites as ‘potentially’ having some significance to their ‘culture’. If a property owner needs a resource consent for their own property and it’s within cooey of one of these ‘potential’ sites it’s the property owner who must cross the tribal palm with silver to find out.  

Yes this is immoral, but so was the Mayor, and he’s still there.   

The only group fighting for the rights of individual property owners, but by extension the democratic rights of all Aucklanders, is Democracy Action. In furtherance of their mission to make sure the race based ‘mana whenua’ provisions are withdrawn for the PAUP hundreds of volunteers have been mapping the ‘mana whenua sites’. Of course, this is exactly what tribal elites with the multi million dollar resources available to them through Council officers should have been doing as the necessary first step to identifying which sites, if any, actually have any cultural significance.   

Here is Democracy Action’s latest media release

DEMOCRACY ACTION LAUNCH VOLUNTEER MAP 
WEDNESDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2015

Democracy Action has today launched a map detailing Auckland Council’s controversial 'sites of value' to mana whenua. A rule in the council's notified Unitary Plan requires applicants carrying out work on 3661 sites of significance and value to mana whenua to obtain cultural impact assessments from one or more of 19 iwi groups.

Democracy Action Chairman, Lee Short, says:
 
“We've had dozens of volunteers photographing and documenting sites to ensure that the public are informed. The fact that some of the supposed sites appear to be located in former rubbish dumps, on the seabed or under buildings does not seem to have prevented the Council from implementing these controversial provisions.”

"The mana whenua provisions have the potential to pose a significant regulatory and financial burden on property owners in the vicinity of any of the 3,600 sites throughout Auckland, and the 2,000 properties within or near designated Special Ecological Areas”

"Democracy Action does not question the need to protect the archaeology of historical and cultural sites. What we do question is the process by which the Council has come to include these sites in the Unitary Plan. Officials have not investigated them, verified their locations or even checked that they still exist."

"Democracy Action is calling for the removal of the 3,600 sites of value to mana whenua from the Unitary Plan until each site has been properly assessed and audited. At the moment it is patently obvious that this has not been the case."

Auckland land owners are encouraged to check the map here.

Lee Short
027 493 7695

lee@democracyaction.org.nz

Here is an actual example of the work being done by the volunteers. 
We have embedded our map of the sites we’ve catalogued to date on our website here, but as a taste of what we have found we will be highlighting sites on a weekly basis.

Site of the Week
ID#205, East Tamaki

Our volunteer documents:

“The site is on top of the hill that is the former Greenmount municipal landfill that is being remediated by Auc ofkland Council and will become a park with sweeping views. The area is a huge 54ha, bounded by Harris, Smales and Springs Rds. It was bequeathed by the late Mrs SJ Lushington, to be set aside for public recreation purposes. But Manukau City Council used it as a scoria quarry and then a dump instead. It was taken over by an entity of the former Auckland Regional Council. Dumping stopped in 2005. Remediation deposits of up to 1.5million cubic metres of fill are being laid to meet “a final contour level”.

According to a council hearing report (under the RMA, dated July 23, 2014), it has two sites of Maori archaeological origin (sites 206 and 3056), being the former Matanginui Pa site, and a midden near the northern boundary. Judging by the enormous filling activities over decades, it seems unlikely there is any surviving physical signs or features of the pa.”

Remember that thanks to the mana whenua provisions, any earthworks in proximity to a site of significance or value to mana whenua will now need to be checked off with iwi! (For more information click here)

Apparently the Council consider a rubbish dump worthy of protecting!

It will come as no surprise that many of the identified sites are fictions of the tribal elite imagination. If you have carte blanche to get away with murder why wouldn't you.

If we want to get rid of Tammany Hall in our own Town Hall we have to get rid of Len Brown and with him all those Councillors and Council Officers who have backed this unnecessary and morally indefensible racist provision in the Auckland Plan. In the meantime support Democracy Action, a grass roots community led initiative that is fighting for the rights of Auckland property owners. 

0 Comments

Tourism lifeblood of Waiheke under threat 

18/2/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureTourists pour off the ferry at Matiatia
55000 visitors to this year’s Headland Sculpture on the Gulf is a more than 20% increase on the 2013 event. This heralds a significant step forward in the popularity of Waiheke as a visitor destination. It represents a tipping point for the island. What had previously been good but steady growth in tourism over the last twenty years has turned into a flood. But all the economic benefits that increased tourism brings by way of jobs, incomes, business, could be lost if the Waiheke Local Board pursues the pipe dream of local board member John Meeuwsen to de-amalgamate from Auckland Council.

Tourism as an industry has matured. Vineyards have moved from being producers of wine into sophisticated wine and food destinations. As such they have been the catalyst for another booming industry, weddings.

Years of marketing to an international audience by individual wineries has had a huge boost in the last four years from the work of ATEED, Auckland Council’s tourism and economic development arm.  This dedicated team has had the resources to market Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf Islands to a much bigger international market. It is one of the unsung benefits of the supercity.

Increased numbers of visitors means there is probably room for competition on the ferries. New ferry services, if they survive, will themselves increase capacity to bring increasing numbers of visitors to the island. New businesses are springing up all the time to transport the visitors around the island. At times last weekend there were three ferries docking at Matiatia and twelve buses and coaches jostling for position to take them to destinations around the island. Accommodation is at a premium as some tourists extend their visits beyond a single day. 

Local jobs in tourism are abundant, so much so that migrant workers are increasingly filling the gaps.

The only fly in the ointment is infrastructure. While there has been heavy investment by private individuals and companies in their own facilities this has not been matched by investment in Council infrastructure. Roads need more maintenance, not less. The Matiatia transport hub is busier than Auckland airport at times. It has been in urgent need of an overhaul for the last ten years and is now at crisis point.

Stories of passengers being left stranded outside the wharf building, like this in today’s Herald, do nothing to enhance the island’s image.

It is well known throughout Auckland Council and Waiheke that the WLB is anti-tourism. It is also anti infrastructure investment of the sort needed to ensure the island delivers on the promises made to international tourists that this is a world class visitor destination. Many infrastructure projects that were already in train have been stopped by this Board. The upgrade to the Matiatia wharf building being just one example.

The only vision of the Board is to take the island back to the 1980s before all these nasty tourists, and most residents, arrived here. How can the Mayor and Council justify investment in the island when they are aware that it is not only Meeuwsen who wants to de-amalgamate, but the Board itself even though they are not saying so outright just yet. Why should they continue to invest in Waiheke which is already a drain on their resources?

If the Green Taliban rabble, all supporters of the Local Board, who harangued the Mayor last Saturday had been listening they would have heard him say that for every $1 dollar collected in rates from Waiheke the Council spends $1.70 on the island. Waiheke benefits from economies of scale more than any other local board area except Great Barrier. Yet you don’t hear Orakei Local Board for example whose ratepayers only receive 10 cents of Council services out of every $1 dollar they pay calling for de-amalgamation.

Sadly, this unnecessary diversion from the real business of the local board will ensure the much needed investment in infrastructure isn’t forthcoming any time soon.

We all know de-amalgamation is a tactic to draw attention away from the disastrous performance of this local board. They have managed to lose the island $12 million of investment in its first year alone and $5 million a year from here on because its members are incapable of managing the resources and budgets that were already in place.

With economic illiterates like these in charge try and imagine the shambles that would ensue if they tried to run the island. The flood of tourists would not stop. They would still get to their beautiful vineyard destinations but they would have to get there on bicycles on third world roads, littered with rubbish because they had returned to having a third world rubbish dump knee deep in mud. Some vision, some Board.

Far more likely is that someone will propose an alternative to de-amalgamation such as complete integration with Auckland Council. Now that is a proposition that could really fly with the Local Government Commission. The Commission is concerned with the economies of scale that come from amalgamation because only that way can they achieve the purposes of the Local Government Act for councils “to facilitate improved economic performance”. This means productivity improvements for businesses and households must be cost efficient and effective.

The record of this Board is already against them in economic terms. In reality this is just another attempt to divert attention away from their woeful performance. They are a Board full of protest politicians. There is nothing they like better than marching, protesting, waving banners and their copies of the Gulf (Green Taliban) News. It would be amusing except that such antics threaten the tourism lifeblood of the island.


0 Comments

The greatest scientific scandal ever 

17/2/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
People of common sense have always been sceptical of the ‘big lie’, just like they’re sceptical of the claims of big companies and big governments. Despite the massive media hype surrounding global warming/climate change there has been a resolute response from most people of, maybe but so what. Even if they think there might be something to the ‘big lie’ just because everyone else is saying it must be so and they don’t understand the science anyway, they remain unconvinced that it is something they need waste their energy on. For once, thank goodness for apathy.   

As the world becomes smaller because of international communications it is not surprising that companies seek new markets to grow their businesses. Some businesses have created global empires that rival the power and influence of governments. Equally unsurprising is the response of anti-capitalist groups fearing global domination by a few companies. Their solution is also global, a global government that will put control of the world’s resources in the hands of big government not big business. The problem for anti-capitalists has been how to mobilise global opposition to big business. They found their answer in the neatly packaged global warming scare. This makes big business into a monster that is so destructive it will mean the end of human beings on earth. 

Using ‘scientific data’ to justify global alarmism has been a highly successful ploy, because not many can understand the science but all can understand the danger. The world’s media has taken the alarmist cause to heart, after all who wouldn’t want to stop the destruction of our planet. The ‘problem’ can only be solved by some sort of global superpower with the power to dictate to sovereign governments how they must ‘behave’. In other words a global totalitarian dictatorship led by the United Nations.   

The marketing of this ‘global environmental disaster’ has been superb. If you’re going to tell a lie then make it the biggest lie you can think of because big lies are easier to peddle than small ones, especially when ‘scientists’ have ‘proved’ them.   


But some scientists were never ‘believers’. Some scientists did what scientists should, they tested and analysed the data rather than the hype and found it wanting. So much so that they are now able to say, what people of the common sense had already suspected, that global warming ‘is the biggest science scandal ever’.   

Christopher Booker takes up the latest twist in this global scam, the lie that 2014 was the ‘hottest year ever’.


New data shows that the “vanishing” of polar ice is not the result of runaway global warming  

When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.

This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record.

Of much more serious significance, however, is the way this wholesale manipulation of the official temperature record – for reasons GHCN and Giss have never plausibly explained – has become the real elephant in the room of the greatest and most costly scare the world has known. This really does begin to look like one of the greatest scientific scandals of all time.

When NASA doctors the data where will it end?
NASA EXPOSED: MASSIVE TEMPERATURE DATA ADJUSTING ALL OVER THE WORLD  

So we find that a large chunk of Gavin’s hottest year is centered around a large chunk of South America, where there is little actual data, and where the data that does exist has been adjusted out of all relation to reality.

NASA has been EXPOSED altering temperature data in Paraguay to support the global warming hoax. I say “exposed” because even though the alarmist scientists openly explain how and why these adjustments are sometimes done (Section 2.SM.4 here for example), most people don’t actually read the science. It’s much easier to glean over blogs and editorials that interpret all the complicated information for us, and then spoonfeed the cherry-picked parts we only want need to hear.

So what is this really all about? I can do no better than let Lord Monckton explain in this Youtube video (you only have to watch the first six minutes to understand the political agenda but the rest is fascinating). 

1 Comment

Visitors to HSOG pass 55000 mark

15/2/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureAnah Dunsheath sculpture
Businesses are booming in Oneroa as they take advantage of the record numbers attending this year’s Headland Sculpture on the Gulf (HSOG). Yesterday numbers hit 50,000 with more due today, the last day of the outdoor art fest. A final update says they have passed 55,000. Over 20% more than 2013. 

The sun gods have shone kindly on this year’s event. Excellent media coverage and promotion to the ever larger numbers on cruise ships docking in Auckland have seen the event take Waiheke a giant leap forward as a visitor destination. Great local wineries offering fine cuisine and excellent tasting rooms have also experienced a lift in business during HSOG.

Waiheke has so much to offer the sophisticated traveller that it is now a ‘must visit’ on the New Zealand tourist map. The island’s beaches, boutique accommodation, wineries, restaurants and cafes not only service the main visitor trade but have assisted growth in the newer and booming wedding market. The tide of tourists cannot be turned back.

ATEED, Auckland Council’s tourism, events and economy development arm, see Waiheke as one of their major draw cards in promoting Auckland as a world class visitor destination. They have seized the initiative away from Waiheke’s visitor unfriendly local board to ensure Waiheke gets the attention it deserves in promotion to an international audience.

Tourism is the lifeblood of the island. Many island jobs depend on it, as do numerous small businesses. Increased visitor numbers will probably ensure continuation of the new ferry service. Directly and indirectly we all benefit from more visitors.

To maintain these benefits more investment is needed in island infrastructure. It is the Local Board’s role to make the case for more resources from Auckland Council not go off half cock chasing ‘go it alone’ pipe dreams that are both costly and unsustainable. 

Without tourism there wouldn’t be enough numbers to justify competition on the ferries, business and the economy would falter and eventually stall and die. This might be what the Greens on the island want but it is not what the community as a whole, Auckland or New Zealand want. Opposition is mounting to this stupid short-sighted idea. It is time businesses and all who have invested in their own and their children’s future make their voices heard.

0 Comments

Taxpayers' Union forces Government backdown on SkyCity Convention Centre

15/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
In a victory for the taxpayer over National’s suicide mission to stump up extra money for the SkyCity Convention Centre the government has just announced SkyCity have agreed to keep within their original budget. 

A petition organised by the only Taxpayers' Union, the only group representing the taxpayer, has sent a clear message to National that this was a no win for them. 98% said they did not support more taxpayer funding for SkyCity.

This remarkable victory comes hot on the heels of the Taxpayers' Union’s big win to force the government to have ten year passports instead of the money making five year deal forced on New Zealanders.

I urge all taxpayers to support this influential group in its quest to represent their interests.  


The SkyCity convention centre is to be redesigned to meet the original budget, with no extra funding to be sought from the Government.

SkyCity had said it needed an extra $130 million because of rising construction costs.

The central Auckland development was originally set to cost $402 million.

"I have repeatedly stated since December that our least preferred option is for the Government to contribute funding for the project. I am pleased to confirm that will be the case," Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said.

"The Crown has also indicated today that it may be prepared to accept a slightly smaller NZICC (New Zealand International Convention Centre), if that is required to meet the agreed total construction cost."

When the SkyCity deal was signed in May 2013, Prime Minister John Key said the construction of the new convention centre would not cost ratepayers or taxpayers a cent.

However the plea for extra funding had become a political headache for the Government.

SkyCity chief executive Nigel Morrison said they "accepted and respected" the Government's decision.

"This decision gives SkyCity the clarity needed to move forward with the development of this exciting project. We remain committed to delivering a landmark Convention Centre for Auckland and New Zealand," Mr Morrison said.

The date for design approval will be extended.

0 Comments

Council roadshow hijacked by Green Taliban

15/2/2015

1 Comment

 
PictureMayor at yesterday's meeting
A high-powered Auckland Council Roadshow rolled into Waiheke yesterday led by the Mayor, Councillors and a top-level team of Auckland Council bureaucrats to discuss Council’s 10 year long-term plan and budget. They might as well not have bothered. Instead of taking part in the discussion about the plan the Waiheke Green Taliban, led from behind by John Stansfield, partner of hard left Green Party List MP Denise Roche, mounted an assault on the Mayor and Council as the opening barrage of their de-amalgamation breakaway movement.

Around forty members of the public attended the roadshow along with as many Council politicians and staff, who had given up their valuable weekend time with family and friends to come to Waiheke as part of the public consultation process on Council's 10 year plan. Council salaries alone would have topped $10,000 for the afternoon. Of the Waiheke community attending around 80% were members of the island’s Green Taliban frontal assault team and 20% were ordinary members of the public.

This was an opportunity to raise concerns over the Mayor’s handling of Council finances, rates rises, and transport plans. The Mayor spent ten minutes at the outset outlining his priorities which amounted to some well worn rhetoric about rates rises and debt levels being capped, but the main thrust of his speech could be summed in when he said, “The problem for Auckland is transport and getting the city moving. All our money is being put into public transport at the expense of everything else”. He went on to explain this meant his train set. He said people he wanted to force commuters off roads by a combination of congestion charges and additional local taxes and make them use public transport or cycle to work.

The bulk of the audience weren’t in the least bit interested in hearing what the Mayor had to say, nor were they interested in engaging with Council staff who had laid out Ostend Hall with tables ready to focus on key issues, each manned by a top bureaucrat and politician. Four members of the Waiheke Local Board were there. Shirin Brown was absent. With a few exceptions such as tackling the Mayor on the ‘chemical weed management’ policy in the plan, most questions from the floor were about purely Waiheke issues not Council’s 10 year plan.

It must be clear from my blogs that I am no fan of the Mayor, especially his headlong desire to follow the small but vocal UN Agenda 21 Greens of Generation Zero who want all transport budgets spent on cycle lanes and trains. However, I have some sympathy with him and Council when they devote valuable staff time and energy to a meeting that gets high-jacked by local Greens only interested in setting the scene for their de-amalgamation agenda.

Gum-chewing Local Board Member John Meeuwsen looked very pleased with himself as he left the meeting with a wink at Stansfield. He was off after fifty minutes to start his own ‘de-amalgamation’ strategy session with his leading Green cohorts, including a person who looked like she’s been scalped and was trying to cover her bald patches by putting a skunk on her head.

No wonder he was pleased with himself. Once again the Greens had demonstrated to Auckland Council that Waiheke is run by idiots and populated by a bunch of fruits and nuts. This was all designed to make Council heartily sick of Waiheke and look forward to the day when they could be rid of the millstone around their necks. After all, as the Mayor told the meeting, Waiheke gets back much more from Auckland Council than is justified on a purely population basis.

The Mayor should not be surprised at his reception. He has made himself a laughing stock and brought Council into disrepute with his lies and deliberate attempts to undermine democracy. Sadly he is emulated by Waiheke’s Green inspired local board members who are cross that they haven’t been handed out Council sweeties to pursue their own Green vision for Waiheke. It’s a question of two narcissists, Brown and Walden, unable to tolerate each other. The losers are the people of Auckland and Waiheke.


1 Comment

Dangers of separation based on myth of ‘race’

14/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
It is ironic that In the middle of the New Zealand remembrance of the Holocaust at an exhibition “From Auschwitz to Aotearoa’ currently being staged at the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand from 27 January (International Holocaust Day) to 20 February comes Waitangi Day. Waitangi Day is being used increasingly to perpetuate the myth of race to create a country of separation. The Holocaust stands as a permanent reminder of the dangers of defining people that way.

I have made the point before that the concept of race is indeed a myth in two blogs ‘I’m related to Charlemagne, how about you’ and ‘Time to abolish tribal privilege’. This is taken up in an article by Dr Muriel Newman “Reflecting on our Past”.


Defining people by race has always been dangerous. The atrocities of the Nazi extermination programmes during World War Two should leave no-one in any doubt about that. 

In fact, that experience led the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to invite leading international anthropologists and sociologists to investigate the issue of ‘race’ and in 1950 they issued a declaration, which included the following 
statement
: 

“The biological fact of race and the myth of ‘race’ should be distinguished. For all practical social purposes ‘race’ is not so much a biological phenomenon as a social myth. The myth ‘race’ has created an enormous amount of human and social damage. In recent years it has taken a heavy toll in human lives and caused untold suffering. It still prevents the normal development of millions of human beings and deprives civilization of the effective co-operation of productive minds. The biological differences between ethnic groups should be disregarded from the standpoint of social acceptance and social action. The unity of mankind from both the biological and social viewpoints is the main thing. To recognize this and to act accordingly is the first requirement of modern man.”


With no scientific foundation for defining people by ‘race’, but a recognition of the destructive societal consequences of racial profiling, many countries are now moving towards the elimination of the concept from their constitutional arrangements. Austria has rejected the idea of separate races, as have Finland and Hungary. Similar moves are being considered in both France and Germany. In Fiji, all laws and conventions based on race - including separate electoral rolls and reserved seats in Parliament - have been abolished.
Isn’t it time New Zealand grew up and stopped this socially divisive iwi gravy train that is leading the nation down an ugly and destructive path of racial separation?

At a time when New Zealand is becoming a melting pot of many cultures and identities such outdated concepts as ‘race’ need to be removed from all legislation. 

Over the years, the Maori rights movement has also successfully persuaded successive governments to allocate increasing levels of funding to race-based initiatives – all in the name of reducing so-called ‘Maori’ disadvantage. The problem is that such programmes are based on a false premise - it is not being Maori that causes disadvantage, instead, it is such things as a lack of education, long term welfare dependency, sole parenthood, violence and criminality, substance abuse, or living in an area where there are no jobs.

Being mired in racial division is not the way of the future. We need to follow those enlightened nations around the world that are abolishing the concept of race from their statute books. And it needs to be done now, before the likes of Labour and the Greens, who are pandering to those who claim that the Maori did not cede sovereignty, ever get their hands on the levers of power. 

0 Comments

Mayor AWOL on crucial vote  

13/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
There was a crucial vote yesterday on whether to allow Ports of Auckland (POA) to reclaim more land in the Waitemata Harbour. The Mayor thought his attendance at the Cricket World Cup in Christchurch was more impoartant. 

Yesterday, the Herald editorial railed against POA on the grounds that the expansion was unnecessary, costly and would ‘would, inevitably, diminish the Waitemata's visual splendour’. 

Capacity constraints at the Port of Auckland feature high on the list of those eager to justify its expansion through further reclamation of the Waitemata Harbour. They were the focus of an Institute of Economic Research report commissioned by the Auckland Council, the port's sole shareholder. Now, they also underpin a proposal from the City Centre Integration Group that would see the Captain Cook Wharf extended to handle large cruise ships, and the Bledisloe Wharf enlarged to compensate for the resulting lack of freight space.
Council has been deeply divided on this issue because they have been confronted by a dilemma: on the one hand POA provides employment, directly and indirectly, for 250,000 Aucklanders, on the other hand an expanded industrial presence on the Auckland waterfront does not make for ‘the world’s most beautiful waterfront’. And the mayor is heavily into wanting to be the 'world’s most… '

What was truly gobsmacking was that the mayor was absent for the vote. This is one of the most crucial issues facing the Council yet he felt it was more appropriate to be at the opening of the Cricket World Cup in Christchurch leaving his hapless deputy in charge. This alone tells the ratepayers about where the Mayor's priorities lie, and it's not with Auckland.

Equally bewildering for the hard-pressed Auckland ratepayer is that the Council has spent tens of millions turning Queen’s Wharf into a cruise ship terminal when, in light of the Council vote, this project will be abandoned.

All too recently, the council spent $16.8 million refurbishing Shed 10 on Queens Wharf as a cruise-ship terminal. That would become redundant. A new terminal would have to be built at Captain Cook. This is deemed necessary because Queens Wharf cannot handle the increasing number of cruise ships of more than 290m.
Before the vote took place Council Officers advised Councillors it was a fight they could not win in the Environment Court. They caved in to pressure and voted narrowly to relax rules that would have constrained reclamation. This was reported in another Herald article.
Ports of Auckland has won a huge victory allowing it to use more of the Waitemata Harbour to park cars after Auckland councillors yesterday caved in on tough rules for reclamation.

Councillors also voted 16-5 yesterday to delay a decision on a central wharves strategy that involves further reclamation of the harbour in exchange for turning Captain Cook wharf into a cruise ship terminal.

This Council is a by-word for waste because it continues to put the cart before the horse. Queens Wharf was the brain-child (I use the phrase loosely) of the economically illiterate Councillor Mike Lee so it comes as no surprise that the multi-million dollar project is turning to worms because POA were never enthusiastic about Lee’s vision. In similar fashion the Mayor is pressing ahead with the City Rail Link before it is known if the money is forthcoming from an unenthusiastic government.

It is this failure of leadership to be financially responsible that is leading the city into bankruptcy. Ratepayers are paying through the nose whilst the Mayor and left wing Councillors waste ratepayers' hard earned cash on pet vanity projects. Worse, they insist on throwing good money after bad. Let's hope they are confined to the waste bins of history at the next election.

0 Comments

Walden wastes another $25k on Waiheke school pool

12/2/2015

1 Comment

 
PicturePool full of waste
Not content with wasting $25,000 of ratepayers money on a school pool feasibility study, Chair of the Waiheke Local Board (WLB) Paul Walden is proposing to squander another $25,000 of SLIPs (small local improvements) money on ‘concept sketches and options for a potential lane and learn to swim pool complex as per the specifications outlined in the APR Consulting report and feasibility study dated 1 September 2014’.

The public has yet to see the APR Consulting report referred to above despite Official Information Act (LGOIMA) requests that have been met with obfuscation and secrecy from the WLB and Auckland Council. Walden tried to by-pass due process by handing over the money a year ago to the schools’ Boards of Trustees, led by
 John Stansfield partner of hard left Green Party list MP Denise Roche. Walden is again trying to by-pass public accountability for ratepayers money by using the same mechanism, a Notice of Motion (NoM) on the agenda of today’s WLB meeting.

The whole process is shrouded in secrecy. To date there has been no evidence to accompany either NoM that says the schools have even resolved that they want a school pool. There has been no evidence supplied to the public as to where the money is coming from to build and maintain any ‘potential’ school pool built on Ministry of Education land. The Ministry of Education has washed its hands of swimming pools precisely because they are expensive to build and maintain and are not within most schools budgets. What is clear is that a school pool is not the responsibility of the ratepayer who will have limited or no access to the pool. Yet, despite this, Walden has so far wasted $25,000 and wants to waste $25000 more on reports from a Rotorua based agency that have worked closely with the Green Party. Requests have been made to see the invoices from this agency so the public can know if all the money has been spent on the report of some syphoned off elsewhere.

This time Walden is trying to kill two birds with one stone by making the Waiheke Recreation Centre (school gym) Trust rather than the schools' Boards of Trustees the fall guy for the money. Under the guise of the school gym falling into disrepair because the Board has failed to deliver the $200,000 per annum they promised the Trust in the draft local board plan, the Board now wants to use what’s left of SLIPs money to help fund maintenance of the school gym and plan for a school pool. From the end of June they have lost the $1million a year SLIPs budget won for Waiheke by the first Waiheke Local board and so are keen to spend what is left to help the schools. Whether or not they want that help, who knows?

There is an air of desperation in this NoM. The WLB is running out of money – fast. Despite all the promises they made to the schools to fund the school gym and school pool they simply don’t have any. And maybe that’s as it should be. Ratepayers money should not be used to fund Ministry of Education facilities. That is a taxpayer function. Walden has consistently failed to represent the ratepayer when it comes to spending their money.

Imagine how it would be if this WLB decides to ‘go it alone’. I know. Too horrible to contemplate isn’t it. Look at how much they have cost the community already through mis-management, lack of accountability, secrecy, cronyism and endless waste of ratepayers money on ‘plans’, ‘concepts’, ‘drawings’. If you think rates are bad now they would go through the roof.


1 Comment

Good news is bad news for labour and greens

11/2/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureAuckland only blot on NZ copybook
The latest ‘state of the nation’ report by the Salvation Army says that, on the whole, New Zealand is doing well. Child poverty, though I struggle to understand why politicians are so focussed on children in poverty as opposed to all who are poor, is down, drinking is down, teen pregnancy is down, but so is unemployment. This is the best news of all. More people in jobs equals better overall wellbeing.

But some politicians won’t be happy that things are getting better. Whilst the Salvation Army report it is good news for the government it is bad news for Labour and the Greens. Labour and the Greens have chosen to focus on the negatives of New Zealand society rather than focus on how they might contribute to a positive future. The aspects of life they whinge and moan about are, by and large, improving after six years of a National led government.

The only place where the report signals a note of caution is Auckland where the Labour NightMayor that is Len Brown continues his quest to make the city the ‘World’s Most Unaffordable and Unlovely'.


State of the nation: Life getting better on most indicators  

Child poverty is dwindling, more people are in jobs and people are drinking and gambling less, the Salvation Army says.

The army's eighth annual "state of the nation" report says life is getting better on 14 out of 22 indicators of our social wellbeing. Only four indicators are getting worse and four others are inconclusive.

But the positive trends associated with economic recovery risk being undermined by negatives on two key housing measures - a worsening physical shortage of housing in Auckland, and worsening affordability as both house prices and rents increase.

So it’s only Auckland that is letting New Zealand down. 

That is the result of four horrendous years at the hands of Labour Mayor Len Brown and his cohorts on Council. Just about every survey on housing affordability says the blame lies squarely with the restricted supply of land caused by the Mayor’s ‘UP not out’ policy and the increase in compliance costs imposed by Council. You can add to that the deteriorating financial position of ratepayers and ballooning debt to see why Auckland is a national problem rather than a regional one. 

Auckland is a drag on the whole economy of the country. National really needs to get to grips about what it can do to reverse the 'Auckland problem'. Labour is entrenched in the city because democracy is a numbers game with South Auckland numbers always ensuring a Labour held city. This means long-term mismanagement and debt which the country cannot afford.

A dwindling number of ratepayers are paying for the mayor's profligacy but they have least voice when it comes to voting. It really is about time there was a ratepayer's representative group that puts pressure on the Mayor and government for a fairer system of taxing local government. The current model is unsustainable. 
0 Comments

Waiheke’s own Hamilton Gardens

10/2/2015

1 Comment

 
PicturePeter Lange chairs bought by the first WLB as a legacy from HSOG 2011
Along with the many ‘plans’, ‘cultural values assessments’, ‘heritage evaluations’ etc. that the Waiheke Local Board is wasting ratepayers’ money on is one for an ‘Alison Park Concept Plan’ to the tune of $9600. 

On the face of it this is yet another waste of money as a concept plan for the park already exists as does a Reserve Management Plan. The concept plan to turn Alison Park into Waiheke’s own Hamilton Gardens was presented to the Waiheke Local Board (WLB) during their Long Term Plan submission process by a community group Friends of Alison Park (FAP).

Once upon a time, in the good old days of the first Waiheke Local Board, before money was allocated to any project there was a Council Officer’s report accompanying the item in the board’s agenda including a breakdown of costs and who would oversee the project. These reports are noticeable by their absence under this second dysfunctional WLB. The WLB are spending ratepayers’ money without any accountability, so there is no clue as to who will draw up the ‘concept’ plan and how the $9600 will be spent. Judging by their record so far it will be one of their Green Party mates or one of the many Green Party influenced ‘community’ organizations. 

I hope not. This time there is a genuine community group, Friends of Alison Park, with a vision of turning Alison Park into Waiheke’s own ‘Hamilton Gardens’, the internationally acclaimed public park in the Waikato. The group has 
continued to refine and develop their concept. This is a community led initiative with support from Oneroa Ratepayers (MORRA) whose hall is across the road from the park. Here is the preamble to their latest update.

ALISON PARK VISION & CONCEPT

This vision for Alison Park’s further enhancement as a community asset arises from the efforts of many past Boards and Council initiatives and from the determinations of current ratepayers and residents’ dreams and aspirations for creating an attractive gateway to Waiheke.  It is a long term vision with many potential projects for fleshing out.  Individuals with a variety of professional and interest-based skills are bringing up project ideas for further development.  

It goes on to say:
The short term management of the Alison Park plan is emerging in this way and must not be limited by early imposition of externally conceived models.  It would, for example, be counter-productive and potentially fatal to prematurely lease the existing building to one external, controlling community group.  The energy and creativity of the wider community would immediately be lost.  Exactly how and what long term management plan will be appropriate is not yet clear.  
As well as continuing the tradition of a sculpture park, sadly discontinued by this Board the first to have failed to buy a legacy sculpture from this year’s Headland Sculpture On the Gulf, other ideas include a children’s adventure playgrounds, rose gardens, tea kiosk and a variety of other possible uses. It finishes:
It is clear that these projects all require a deep investigative approach to gathering the historical and cultural histories of the Island.  They also draw on horticultural expertise, children’s developmental requirements, and other sensibilities. 

Economic realities are always with us.  No project is free of financial implications.  

The group is hoping to work with Council to develop the park based on the co-operative model of the successful Friends of McKenzie Reserve. The money allocated by the WLB should be assigned to FAP to draw up a five year plan. From that plan individual projects will emerge that will require funding by the group itself as well as the Board. 

Just for once let us hope WLB will not act selfishly and instead look to the greater good of the community as a whole. 
1 Comment

Secrecy and lies hallmark of Auckland Council

9/2/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Auckland Council takes its lead from the Mayor. He was given enormous power under the Auckland Act, far more than any other mayor in the country. It might have been used for the greater good. Instead he has chosen to rule the city like an absolute monarch making up the rules as he goes along, unaccountable, undemocratic and unreliable.

He is aided and abetted in this autocracy by a swag of self-serving sycophants who sweep up after him. They’re like pigs in muck. They get huge salaries for mirroring their chief. They too are unaccountable, undemocratic and unreliable. Pity the poor minions who serve under them.

The people are fed up. Faced with rates rises 500% above inflation, soaring debt, new taxes and yet having to put up with reduced Council services the public is getting very frustrated and starting to demand answers. What do they get instead? They get a wall of secrecy and lies.

The latest example of this is the new mayoral office. Suspecting yet another monument to the Mayor’s profligacy the Herald asked Council officials for details under a LGOIMA (local government official information and meetings act) request. They have been told they cannot have the information.


Auckland Council is refusing to reveal details about mayor Len Brown's new office - because the information could put the mayoral chains at risk.

The mayor's staff have largely rejected a Local Government Official Information and Meetings' Act request from the Herald on Sunday for correspondence about his new office, which contains a private bathroom and dressing room hidden behind a bookcase.

It is through LGOIMA requests that the public tries to find out the truth behind the official lies. Unfortunately democracy is dead in Auckland. Council officials, taking their lead from their master, have made it increasingly difficult to get the information the public seeks. They do this in a number of ways. First they don’t answer the question that was asked. Then they try and hide behind ‘confidentiality’, and if it looks like they might have to give out the requested information they start charging fees out of the range of most people’s pocket.

Don’t think this happens just at the mayoral level. The secrecy and lies is through every level of governance. I was given a local example only yesterday. The Waiheke Local Board (WLB) was elected on a promise of providing the community with a swimming pool within a year, but three at the most. The WLB abandoned the pool process set in place by the first board. They ignored the first board’s $30,000 swimming pool feasibility study made public only weeks before they took office and commissioned a study of their own. To be more accurate they handed $25,000 of ratepayers’ money to the Boards of Trustees of Te Huruhi and Waiheke High School for a report into where to site the pool on school grounds. No accountability was attached to this report.

The report was promised to be made public to a group of residents last April by the Chair of the Local Board. Then it was promised by Council officers to a resident in November. It was shown to local MP Nikki Kaye, who quoted from it prior to the election. It was shown to the Waiheke Swimming Pool Committee in October but apparently the ratepayers are not allowed to see it. Frustrated by this lack of accountability, another resident made a LGOIMA request months ago to be given a copy of the $25,000 study. He received it last week. You’ll not be surprised to learn that Council Officers have not sent him the $25,000 school pool study. Instead he has been sent a copy of the $30,000 swimming pool feasibility study made public already by the first WLB.

Democracy is dead on Waiheke and in Auckland. 

2 Comments

The New Lynn penis

8/2/2015

1 Comment

 
UPDATE
Cock also a crock says Whaleoil
Cameron Brewer raises some questions that certainly need answering
The artist is a coward, he bloody well knew what he was doing but now he pretends it was an accident it ended up as a cock.

This who shemozzle really does require some serious questions to be asked and answered.

 1. Who decided that a sculpture was needed to grace an obscure alleyway?

2. What design process and commissioning process was gone through?

3. Why do our rates seem to fund extremely expensive sculptures, some in the millions of dollars?

4. Is Auckland Council running a funding programme for the arts luvvies, in particular sculptors?

5. What one earth can we do to reign in the profligate spending of our council?

6. How do we rid ourselves of this insane spendthrift council?

Picture
Sometimes the universe offers up something that symbolises a situation so aptly you could be forgiven for thinking there was a divine spirit that moves in such mysteriously ways it performs wonders of enlightenment. The penis shaped public art work in New Lynn sums up the Len Brown mayoralty like nothing else could. This is how it has been described in various media:

  • A self portrait to mayoral vanity
  • It’s a cock and balls story
  • Mayor of Auckland a right dick
  • A complete balls up 

The public art fiasco has offered Aucklanders an opportunity to ridicule their mayor and deputy which they have done with gusto judging by the chatter on Facebook and Twitter. To add insult to injury Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, in her fluffy woolly cardigan sort of way, invites us to ‘just think of it as a cloud’ as if we, unlike her it seems, can’t tell the difference.

As if it isn’t enough that Auckland and New Zealand thinks the city is run by a right peen-arse, as the cockneys describe it, the story has been taken up internationally by Time magazine on-line under the section heading ‘weird’.

I say let the ‘artwork’ remain where it is as a monument to the Brown mayoralty.
Omnia Vanitas

1 Comment

Protect our children

7/2/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Falling literacy and numeracy rates, rising race based violence, a culture of entitlement based on race all indicate something is very wrong in our education system. Racial, religious and political indoctrination is being perpetuated in our schools and in teacher training institutions because there is no adequate protection from political influence in law.

This is being highlighted in a petition organised by the NZ Centre for Political Research who are calling for safeguards to be written into law to protect our children from political indoctrination in schools.


There are no safeguards in the New Zealand Education Act to protect children from political indoctrination such as the rampant Treaty propaganda that masquerades as the truth, and radical environmentalism, that teaches youngsters that humans are killing the planet and causing runaway global warming. In Britain such safeguards exist and they require that teachers give children a balanced view on political issues:

· Clause 406 of the British Education Act forbids “the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in the school”, and

· Clause 407 requires, that if political matters are raised, children “are offered a balanced presentation of opposing views”.

Our petition to the House of Representatives requests that similar safeguards to those that exist in the British Education Act are introduced into the New Zealand Education Act 1989. The petition reads:

“As concerned citizens we call on the Government to protect school children from political indoctrination by inserting into the Education Act 1989, provisions similar to those in the British Education Act: clause 406 forbids ‘the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in the school’ and clause 407 requires that if political matters are raised, children ‘are offered a balanced presentation of opposing views’.”

I have written previously about the process of political indoctrination allowed in our schools by highlighting the case of Waiheke High School which, before last year’s general election, allowed only hard left Green Party list MP, Denise Roche into the school to preach her political propaganda. No other politician was granted the same opportunity. A similar thing happened before the local body elections in 2013.

Indoctrination of children with any political or religious philosophy undermines the role of education. Mature children become adults when they have been encouraged to use their own judgement after being presented with balanced arguments. Otherwise they remain in a state of perpetual childhood, where they are prey to any irrational influence that comes along. A nation of perpetual children leads to a ‘Lord of the Flies’ society. Is this the future we really want for New Zealand? If not, please sign the petition.


2 Comments

Let's start celebrating New Zealand Day and stop being saddened by Waitangi Day

6/2/2015

3 Comments

 
Picture
The following letter in the Wanganui Chronicle sums up the deep sense of fractured nationhood felt by many throughout the country, especially today. 

Once upon a time we were all Kiwis and used to celebrate New Zealand Day together. Now we are divided into iwi, pakeha and New Zealanders. 

There are New Zealanders by birth and New Zealanders by choice. Kiwis are those who identify as New Zealanders. If New Zealanders identify first and foremost as iwi they are New Zealanders but they are not Kiwis. If New Zealanders identify first and foremost as pakeha, a name given them by iwi, they are New Zealanders but they are not Kiwis. 

A NATIONAL DAY 
Waitangi Day is a sad day, as it reminds us that the tribes/iwi of New Zealand are dead in the water, locked into a feuding dog-eat-dog past. It's time we stopped the intertribal warfare (that includes Ngati Pakeha as well as all the smaller iwi) before we end up like Afghanistan or tribal parts of Africa and the Middle East.


The name Wanganui has a life of its own, independent of any language. It's a west coast New Zealand city populated by people from all over the world. Wanganui is a "Kiwi" word and one all the peoples of Wanganui, New Zealand and the world can be proud of. It has lost any links it had to the Polynesian languages.

One suspects Maori has done the same, shown by the need to establish a Maori Language Commission, one of whose roles is to invent "new" Maori words. To add insult to injury, we pay millions of dollars a year to invent and support the Maori language — Maori Language Commission/ Te Taura Whiri i to Reo Maori receives $3.204 million in baseline funding annually when fewer than 25 per cent of Maori homes have access to a Maori speaker (http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/englishpub_e/bim.pdfp28). Money better spent on supporting/ intervening with poor families and those that maim and injure their own offspring of whatever race but Kiwis all).

Think how many jobs for Kiwis could be created instead of new words almost nobody uses. New Zealand itself is an anglicised Dutch name for a place discovered by Polynesians (and others) and colonised by the British.

The Treaty of 1840 was, among other things, an attempt by the British to stop the tribes/iwi killing each other (read a history of the 1820-30 musket wars). Any problems with the Treaty should be taken up by the people of New Zealand with the Queen and people of Britain, as we are an independent nation (Statute of Westminster adopted by the people of New Zealand on September 25, 1947). If we want a national day to celebrate our birth as a nation, this is the day we should celebrate. 

T O'C
Wanganui

Kiwis are not iwis. Kiwis are not pakeha. Kiws are people who are proud to call themselves New Zealanders.  Kiwis demand their own national day called New Zealand Day. Like this blog if you agree. Share this blog with like-minded Kiwis. Let’s stop being saddened by Waitangi Day. Let’s start celebrating New Zealand Day.
3 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Jo Holmes

    Archives

    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    2016 US Presidential Race
    2017 NZ Election
    Accountability
    ACT
    Art
    Auckland
    Auckland Council
    Auckland Council Election
    Auckland Ratepayers'Alliance
    Brexit
    Britain
    Business
    CCOs
    Climate Change
    Coalition Of Losers
    Comic Relief
    Crime
    Cultural Marxism
    Cycling
    Debt
    Democracy
    Democracy Action
    Economy
    Education
    England
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Europe
    Finance
    Food And Wine
    Food And Wine
    Fullers
    General Interest
    Global Issues
    Goff
    Golf Club
    Governance
    Government
    Greens
    Health
    Hip Op-eration Crew
    Hobson's Pledge
    Immigration
    Labour
    Law
    Leisure And Travel
    Lifestyle And Leisure
    Local Board Meetings
    Local Boards
    Local Government
    Local Media
    Local Politics
    Local Press
    Local Press
    Mainstream Media
    Media
    National
    New Zealand
    NZ First
    NZTU
    Osp Leases
    Our Waiheke
    Political Correctness
    Politics
    President Trump
    Public Transport
    Racism
    Rates
    Religion
    Safety
    Social Media
    Sport
    Tax
    Technology
    Terrorism
    Tourism
    Transport
    Trump
    Unitary Plan
    United Kingdom
    United Nations
    United States
    Waiheke
    Waiheke Local Board
    Waiheke Resources Trust
    Wellington Council
    Wexit
    Youth

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.