Bill Dalton

Well 2007 is drawing to a close and for me it has been an eventful year.

Without a doubt the most interesting thing to happen to me has been my election to the Napier city Council in October this year – and I can tell you it has been a real eye opener.

I have to be honest and say that I always thought that being a councillor would be pretty cruisey – that it wouldn’t take too much time or tax my grey matter too much – and frankly I was wrong. No doubt it will get easier but in these first few months there has been an enormous amount of reading and a great deal of time taken up in seminars and training courses. The old grey matter has taken a fair old battering.

Of course a councillor is required to do his or her homework – to research issues – to canvass public opinion and then at the appropriate time and in the appropriate forum, make the best decision for the City.

But some residents think that we have influence in areas that we have no influence in at all.

For instance I received an angry email yesterday and a posting on my www.dalton.net.nz website – from a woman who believes the Napier City Council are supporting the new Stevedoring company that has been contracted to the Port of Napier.

Let me assure you the dispute between the workers and the Port of Napier has nothing to do with the Napier City Council. And contrary to her statement – the Napier City Council owns no part of the Port of Napier – which is a great shame and is another issue that highlights the nonsensical local government set-up we have here in Hawkes Bay.

I must say the lady sent me a gracious e-mail when I pointed out her error.

However I digress.

Becoming a councillor has been a privilege and a challenge that I have enjoyed. I can’t say I have enjoyed the odd bit of flack or abuse that has come my way but I suppose it simply comes with the territory.

I hope that you all have an enjoyable Christmas and that 2008 is going to be a year in which your dreams come true.

Above all else – stay safe over the holiday period and try to help someone less fortunate than yourself.

At long last our parliamentarians are doing something about the carnage on our roads – but as they so often do – they are making a hash of it.

It is a fact that young drivers are the major cause of the problem so the obvious knee-jerk reaction is to raise the age at which you can get a driver’s licence.

That approach is simplistic – disadvantages many – particularly those in rural areas – and anyway entirely misses the point.

The problem is generally not caused by 15 year olds, so increasing the age to 16 will achieve nothing.

The problem is caused by inexperienced drivers driving extremely powerful cars. If we raise the driving age to 16 it will simply mean that the drivers in the real problem area 17 – 25 will have had one years less experience.

The whole process of getting a drivers licence is wrong. We send our kids off to a driving school where they putter around in little cars at 30-40k’s then say they are good enough to hold a drivers licence. We then put them in a car that is capable of doing 200k’s and tell them to go to it on the open road. These kids have no experience at high speed driving and little or no experience at car control.

To me the answer is obvious. Include a high speed driving/car control component in the process required to gain a drivers licence. It would be easy to set up at tracks such as Taupo or Manfield.

Everyone who wants to gain a licence should be given expert tuition on high speed car control and then observed whilst they do a few laps of the circuit in a prescribed time.

We will never stop young people speeding – but we can keep them and other road users alive by improving everybody’s driving skill level.

Think about it. It is an absolute nonsense the way we currently test for drivers licences. It is a process that is set in the days when cars were slow and heavy. Today’s cars are light and extremely powerful and we need to give prospective drivers a set of skills that can cope with such powerful recycled beer cans.

Raising the age from 15 to 16 will achieve nothing. You and I all know 15 year olds who are far more mature than some of the politicians who are making a hash of this new legislation.

What a terrible Christmas it is going to be for those who have lost huge amounts of money in the collapse of 13 finance companies.Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone down the gurgler – and at this stage at least – that’s due to poorly run finance companies – irresponsible advisors who have directed funds to them and individuals who have failed to seek advise from suitably experienced professionals.

Clearly these finance companies have been poorly run. What should happen in a credit squeeze, if a finance company’s books are properly balanced, is that the finance company would simply get smaller. Loans would mature and be repaid to the company – the company would repay debentures to investors – and if further investments were not forthcoming then the company would end up with a smaller book.

Those that have failed here, either had a geared book or, have been inefficient lenders – or both.

Clearly many financial intermediaries are guilty of greed – of putting their interests ahead of their investors. Why did the likes of Bridgecorp receive such huge support from financial planners – especially late in the piece, when the whole industry knew they were in trouble. The only answer – the only answer is that Bridgecorp were paying brokerage at a level about double the industry average. Wouldn’t that tell you something.

Why are some financial planning firms significantly exposed to the likes of Bridgecorp- Provincial – Capital & Merchant and yet firms such as my own – Somerset Smith Partners – has never placed one cent in any one of the 13 finance companies that have collapsed.

Clearly some firms do their homework and work in their client’s best interests – some are more mercenary.

And finally there are those individuals who have been sucked in by the fancy advertising campaigns, and have managed to make a mess of things all on their own.

Why have these people not sought advice from reputable professionals. It costs them nothing – brokerage is paid by the company – why have they simply blazed on, on their own?

There are still some very good soundly run finance companies out there – good advisors know which ones they are.