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.

Imagine how the lady would sing

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Auckland only blot on NZ copybook

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.

Peter Lange chairs bought by the first WLB as a legacy from HSOG 2011

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.  

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.  

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.  

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.

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?

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’.”

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