Bill Dalton

I was in a workshop the other day, waiting whilst a mechanic punched the details of my warrant of fitness into the computer.  I say waiting because the fellow was so slow on the computer it would have almost been quicker to send a letter to Land Transport.

And then another mechanic came along to an adjacent computer to order some parts and he too had appalling keyboard skills.  And it made me think – why don’t we insist that all pupils at school do a full typing course.  Our whole world is dominated by computers and yet most of us have little or no fluent keyboard skills.

Not one of my kids is a typist.  Yet the policeman spends half his life taking statements or typing reports on a computer.  The public affairs advisor spends a large part of his day preparing presentations and speeches on a computer and the specialist cardio thoracic nurse keeps all medical and treatment records on a computer.

It is a fact that in virtually every walk of life keyboard skills are required and yet they are not routinely taught in our schools.

And speaking of failures in our education system – we don’t teach financial prudence – saving and investment – in our schools either.

We are constantly being told, and rightly so, that New Zealanders need to increase productivity and to save more.  But we don’t teach people how to save and, in the absence of a compulsory scheme like Australia has, we need to educate people.

My two youngest who are currently resident in Melbourne are typical young people.  They want all the latest gadgets and cars – I don’t know where they get that from – and they tend to spend what they earn.  But they do so in the knowledge that 9% of their wages has been extracted from their pay packets before they get their hands on them, and that money is invested in a superannuation scheme for their retirement.  Not a bad idea – in fact I have real sympathy for a compulsory super scheme for New Zealand.

We need to do something.  In the last three quarters of a century, life expectancy has increased by 40%.  Today we have 4.5 workers for every superannuatant, in 25 years time there will only be 2.2 workers for every superannuatant. 

Simply put that’s an unsustainable model.

Ever since Winston Peters, the untrustworthy clown prince of New Zealand, was drummed out of politics, there has been a vacancy sign hanging outside the Beehive.  It has now been taken down.  Rodney Hide has the job.
 
Not since Winston Peters’ days, have I heard a politician spout so much rubbish as I’ve heard from Rodney Hide in recent times.

Rodney wants local authorities to go back to basics – Water, Roads, and Sewerage etc and therefore lower the rates burden.  Sounds good doesn’t it, but think what our town, Napier, would be like to live in.

Libraries are not essential and are non-profitable so they would have to go.  The Municipal Theatre, the War Memorial Conference Centre are not essential and not profitable so they would go.  The Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery is not essential and costs Hawke’s Bay Ratepayers so that would go.  Private enterprise will never pick those ones up because they don’t make any money.  Private enterprise would pick up Kennedy Park because it is very profitable – but hang on – we use the profit from that facility to offset losses in other community assets.

The Sailing Club and the Offshore Fishing Club would dwindle and die because the Napier City Council would not guarantee their borrowings. We provide that guarantee because these clubs can not borrow over their assets because they are on council land.

No more New Years Eve fireworks display, no funds poured into McLean Park to improve the facilities – the list goes on and on.

Without the measured and prudent input from the City Council, Napier would become a backwater.  Tourism – and we are very definitely a tourism town – would die.

Is that what Rodney Hide wants? To concentrate the power in the Auckland Super City.
 
If Rodney Hide was serious about easing the burden on ratepayers across the country, he would have a look at the intolerable layers of bureaucracy and administration imposed on local authorities by central government.
 
Then we might start to see some efficiencies.

Then we would see rates held in check.

It seems like the last week has been “have a go at Bill Dalton” week, which has been a bit of fun.

Firstly, rejected Council Candidate Robin Gwynn suggested my thinking was skewed because I questioned his graphs which showed there were no decile one or two residents – those that are better off in society – living in Westshore.

Silly me – I should have known that the really well off all live over there on Bluff Hill, don’t they Robin.

Then a mate of mine got stuck into me because I have promoted and supported the Napier City Council making a substantial financial contribution to Hockey in Hawke’s Bay.  Let me make my position clear.  The Hockey complex at Park Island is a truly regional facility – it serves hockey players from Wairoa to Waipukurau.  It is a brilliant facility and is run in a proper business like manner.

If anyone was in any doubt about the great job hockey does for our young people, they should have attended the New Zealand under 18 tournament last week – where incidentally the Hawke’s Bay team got a very credible third.

It was a magnificent tournament extremely well run and I would like to thank the organisers for doing me the honour of asking me to present the prizes.

Then, a client of mine got into my ear in a big way about my support for the rebuilding project at the Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery – another truly regional facility.

According to him, the project is a waste of money at a time when such money could be spent in areas offering a better return.

Well, preservation of your culture doesn’t always give you a return in a strictly financial sense.  And if we are looking at the finances of the project, then we need to realise that approximately two thirds of the money will be coming from outside the area – the project will employ a lot of local people and in a variety of ways will inject substantial benefit into our community.

So I hope those who have given me a bit of stick this last week have enjoyed it – because I certainly have.

There is a small, but very vociferous group, here in Napier that has embarked on a campaign to prove to Napier – and more importantly Napier City Councillors – that Napier has enclaves of those who are less well off.

Pages of professorial notes and graphs have been produced and statements made – all trying to prove their point.

It is almost as if these campaigners feel guilty sitting in their comfortable homes on the hill or at Westshore. 

Well I have a message for those well meaning but misguided folk.  We know.  I’ll spell it out clearly for them.  We know there are areas of the city where those in the lower socioeconomic group live.  Just as there are those sorts of areas in every city in the world.  Even under communism – a system I’m sure our campaigners have studied – there are haves and have not’s and the haves tend to live in one area and the have not’s in another.  It is a fact of life.

As a City Councillor, I ask this group what they want the City Council to do about it.

In this country, we have a tax system that taxes the higher income earners, the better off, at higher rates to enable the county’s wealth to be spread more evenly.

The better off tend to live in higher value areas so rates become another mechanism that transfers wealth from the well off to the less well off.
 
And of course the Napier city councillors – who have long been aware of the areas of special need in our community – just like I am sure councillors in every city in New Zealand are aware – puts extra resources into those areas.

As a Councillor, I don’t need to be brow beaten by those who, for whatever reason, feel they need to push one sector of our community.  My job, on behalf of all ratepayers is to use the resources available to council in the fairest way possible.

And let me assure our trendy little group – that includes extra resources for those most in need.

And it’s interesting to note that our hill and Westshore dwellers are not calling for an increase in rates in these areas, in order to assist those in need.