Bill Dalton

The Hastings District Council’s sports park project is the current political hot potato in Hawke’s Bay and as you would expect there are widely differing views.

The athletics track is down and for my dough the grandstand should be built to complete that stage of the project. The funding for that has largely been provided by the sale of Nelson Park.

The next stage of the project is the provision of tennis courts, netball courts and soccer grounds.

Clearly the Hastings District Council would like the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Napier City Council to help with funding this stage – hence the reason the project is now called the Regional Sports Park. It is my view that Napier has done a great job in providing facilities for these sports and has plenty of available land at Park Island for expansion. Why would we spend Napier Ratepayers money on facilities almost 15km away – facilities that are clearly planned to attend to the deficit in such facilities in Hastings.

It might sound like I am against co-operation between the two cities and that is far from the case. Napier is in the process of a very expensive upgrade of McLean Park and there is no more regional facility in the province than that iconic venue. We are doing our bit for regional facilities.

Much is being made of the impact on communities the sports park will have. We are told that we will see a reduction in obesity – reduction in smoking and a general improvement in the health of the most vulnerable in our society.

Surely if that is the aim then the facilities should be put into the communities not out in the middle of nowhere. Many of the “at risk” groups will not be able to afford to travel to the sports park let alone pay the facility fees.

We are told that there will be plenty of facilities to encourage the oldest amongst us to engage in physical activities. Again wouldn’t those facilities be better in the communities where the elderly live. The mind boggles at the thought of all those zimmer frames and mobility scooters heading across the expressway.

Personally I am yet to be convinced that the Napier City Council should commit our ratepayer’s money to this project. We have not been consulted nor had any input into the make-up of the facility. It is clearly a Hastings District Council project and I wish them every success with it.

We had a suggestion at Council the other day that we mount huge signs all along the coastline to warn people of the dangers of swimming off the Napier beaches. Frankly the suggested signs were huge ugly wordy things that suggested that the beach could be dangerous when rough – there may be freak waves – it might be shallow etc. Surprise Surprise!

This is the third recommendation to install signs along the foreshore that we have received in the one year I have been on council. One outfit suggested we ban smoking in all parks and reserves -that includes the foreshore – and that we should put signs everywhere to advise people of the fact. If you can’t wander down to the beach for a smoke where can you go?

Another do-gooder outfit suggested we erect huge signs advising people that “If a tsunami was coming they should move to higher ground”. What do they think we would do – go and sit in a hole somewhere?

Whatever happened to individual responsibility and parental responsibility? Where is this big brother – this is how you are going to behave – thing going end?

What else should we put signs up for? Don’t leave your sandwiches on the beach, the seagulls might get them. Don’t leave your towel by the water it might get wet. Don’t sit on the hot stones you might burn your bum.

I have to say this whole sign thing is getting out of hand and it is destroying initiative in our society.

Go to Wellington and see ugly signs slapped on the sides of beautiful old buildings telling you to use the handrail as you go down the steps.

If you are that wobbly on your pins that you can’t walk down a flight of steps, of course you would use the handrail – and possibly catch bird flu on the way down and die anyway.

Signs in general really say “don’t think for yourself just read the instructions we have for you.”

And most of them are so ugly. If we put all the signs along the foreshore they want us to, no one would have any idea the sea was at hand – no one would be able to see it.

Its time all these organisations who are trying to force their will on society simply to protect their own butt were pensioned off.

And its time we stopped all this nonsense and got back to thinking for ourselves – to looking after our kids and keeping our environment clear of ugly signs and hoardings.

Regular readers will know I am a fierce opponent of MMP and yet even a bad electoral system can produce a good result.

Winston Peters is gone.
 
The man, who used to be a lightweight entertainer – who was one of the real characters of politics but became a nasty vindictive negative influence, is gone.
 
Well done.
 
Proponents of MMP claim that the party vote means we get the party we want – that the voice of the nation is heard.  How come then, the New Zealand First Party gained 4.2% of the party vote and is not represented in Parliament and ACT gained 3.7% of the vote, has 5 MP’s and is able to box well above that weight.  Great system eh!

Stuart Nash here in Napier – rejected by his own party as a candidate but may possibly, depending on special votes, just wander in to Parliament.  Great system eh!

Much is being made by a number of very silly commentators that New Zealand has changed to a “Far Right” government and that of course is unmitigated rubbish.  Labour and National are both parties of the centre – in fact if you look at their policies they both flop from side to side of each other.  Phil Goff for instance would be right of John Key on many issues.  The difference between the parties is the team they can put up. 
For those poor silly commentators that somehow have come to the conclusion that Labour was the party of the people and that National is some far right uncaring mob, let me explain what happened on Saturday.

We stopped the cart and took a tired old horse out from between the shafts.  The tired old horse had been reliable but its vision was not that good and we decided a fresh horse with better vision was required.
The horses are pulling the same cart – we are on the same journey but we decided a different horse suited the road ahead.  We made that decision to avoid problems ahead not to create them.

So despite the extremely rough economic road ahead, we should be celebrating the fact that we have a fresh horse that will hopefully pick its way through the difficult terrain.

My great hope is that, whatever your political persuasion, you will get behind this government.
Times are tough and they are going to need all the help we can offer.

Let’s get positive.

I have been keen on politics as long as I can remember and I can not recall a more boring or pathetic election.

I mean – it’s just bizarre when the most exciting question of the week – just days from polling day – is whether Rodney Hide should be displaying an authorisation on his yellow jacket or not.

Who cares!  The electoral finance act that demands such things is a nonsense and must go.

The TV 3 debate on Monday night was also pathetic.  How people watch that John Campbell I just don’t know.  After the so called debate, the panel of experts were disappointed that neither Helen Clark nor John Key had addressed the financial crisis that is affecting the world.

Of course they didn’t.  They were trying to answer the silly bloody questions put by Campbell.  If answers on specific topics were required – why weren’t questions on these topics asked?

I watched Agenda on Sunday morning – the best programme of the week on at the silliest time.  Winston Peters was simply an embarrassment apart from the fact that what he was saying was completely untrue.

Winston Peters used to be an entertaining lightweight but he has become so arrogant (God knows what he has got to be arrogant about) that he now lets every politician or aspiring politician down.  He has become a caricature of a politician.

Frankly the American election has been far more interesting and more and more New Zealanders have turned off from our boring little soap opera and tuned in to the Presidential race.

New Zealand politics seems to be lacking characters.  David Lange – Big Norm -  dare I say it Rob Muldoon.  Guys like Norman Jones from Invercargill were always fun.  Election campaigns in those days were informative and entertaining.

Now candidates are all controlled by the party machine – they all trumpet the party line and the whole process has lost its colour.

The only colour in this year’s election is Rodney Hide’s jacket and even that is under threat.

Frankly – I guess like you – I will be pleased when it’s all over.