Bill Dalton

I’ve been away in Melbourne for a few days to attend a family wedding – and I have to say a good time was had by all.

The headline news in Australia is some barmaid claiming that the South Australian Premier bonked her, amongst other places, on the desk in his office – which only proves that Australia is as bereft of real news at the moment as we are.

The news upon my return late last night was that Hone Harawira is likely to retain his position as a Maori Party MP which only proves that idiots will always get their own way as long as they are big enough bullies.

On the local scene, the news appears, again, to be Marineland. And again we have Marineland’s supporters saying it must stay open and its detractors saying it must close.

Whilst everyone is entitled to their opinion, it is my view that it is still too soon to make the closure decision or in fact to decide to spend millions on the refurbishment of Marineland. Management are providing us with reports and figures next month.

To me – there are two criteria that must be met. Firstly, it must be economically viable. That doesn’t mean to say it has to pay its way directly – it means that the benefits provided to our community, must outweigh the cost to our community.

The second criteria that must be met in my opinion is that we must be proud of the facility.

When the first cries went up to close Marineland, I spent some time looking at the facility and I have to say, if it had to remain in the condition it was in, I would have voted for closure. It was a disgrace and an embarrassment to the city despite the very best efforts of the staff.

So it’s simple. Either we spend the money to bring the place up to a standard we are proud of – and that expenditure has to be justifiable economically – or we close Marineland down. To me there is no point in a compromise position.

Anyway – its back to the grind for me today which I dare say will mean it will appear a long day – who said no cold beer with lunch.

As a local body politician and a political commentator, it is easy to appear to always have a bee in one’s bonnet. It is also easy to sound permanently negative as you point out projects that need attention, jobs that have been done badly or people like Hone Harawira who is a disgrace to society.

But over the last few days I have once again, had it proven to me, that Hawke’s Bay is a wonderful place to be.

Over the weekend the Hawke’s Bay Vintage Car Club held it’s 50th Jubilee. We had a “noggin and natter night” on Friday night and then Shirl and I went on to the Napier Operatic Show at the Tabbard Theatre – a great night all round.

On the Saturday night the Vintage Car Club had an awards dinner at the Cossie Club – an excellent meal – good music – good company – what else could a man want.

On the Sunday we picked up Charlie Black who at 93 is a legend in Vintage Car circles and drove right up the Taihape Road. The old 1929 Model A went like a dream and we had morning tea at the Russell Homestead – Tunanui. We cruised off around Crownthorpe and came back to Okawa where the Lowry family hosted us at lunch time. A picnic in the magnificent grounds – walking through the rose gardens – life doesn’t get much better than that.

Then last night we attended a ceremony where six prominent locals received special awards from the Mayor of Napier.

When you heard the list of organisations that these people have served and the contribution they have made to our Society – it made you feel very humble.
So no grumbles today – just a confirmation that we are indeed fortunate to live in such a magnificent part of the world.

On my radio piece of July 22nd, I suggested that Rodney Hide was now the clown prince of New Zealand politics. I must say some of my close friends had a go at me about that. Rodney was exceptionally bright they said – Rodney had strong principles they said – Rodney keeps everyone honest they said.

I have to tell you I haven’t heard a chirp out of those friends over the last few days – no doubt because their hero has proven them wrong.

Despite his proper apology, Rodney Hide is not exceptionally bright. He is exceptionally dumb to think he could point the finger at everyone else and get away with sneaking his current girlfriend off to Hawaii, to UK for a wedding, to Disneyland, all at the expense of you and me the humble tax payer.

Rodney Hide has no principles whatsoever. He was quite happy to use the perks he has been campaigning against, and shiftily tried to repay the cost of one trip, when he knew he was going to be caught. And how can Rodney Hide keep everyone honest when clearly he has lost all credibility with the public, and his colleagues alike.

The man is a fool.

Hone Harawira is a racist bigot and frankly is a disgrace to this country and an embarrassment to our parliament. His arrogance beggars belief and in my opinion he is not a fit and proper person to sit in our house of representatives. There would be very few public bars in the country that would tolerate Harawira’s behaviour, and I strongly resent the fact that my taxes are subsidizing this fellow’s lifestyle.

Rodney Hide’s party got 3.65% of the vote last election and Hone Harawira’s considerably less than that. And yet these guys are able to arrange trips around the world – to take their girlfriend to her brother’s wedding or the wife to Paris – on the pretence that they are our representatives – I can tell you, I don’t want them representing me!

The truth is the system is broke – we need to fix it: we need to implement a system that gets rid of these unprincipled bludgers, and to look to a system that understands the meaning of the word service. We need to be led by people who want to serve their fellow man – not by those who see leadership roles as a free ticket on the gravy train.

And we need a system that is transparent.

Earlier this week a popular local blog was discussing the performance of various local bodies in Hawkes Bay. In his comments on the Napier City Council the writer stated, and I quote “The only reason to go to a Napier City Council meeting is to see if anyone has died. Decisions regarding the future of Napier that are truly important are made somewhere else. I think at Mayor Barbara Arnotts kitchen table”

I expected better of the writer than that. He has set out to be intentionally mischievous and provocative. He knows exactly how the system works at the Napier City Council and would have served his readers better if he had explained the methodology that results in the good decisions that Napier makes.

It is said we operate a “double debate” system, but in many ways we triple debate issues.
 
Let me tell you how it works in practice. When a matter is brought to councillors’ attention we go and have a look at the area concerned. It might be a drain or an intersection, or the provision of sports grounds. We go either individually or collectively and inspect the issue. We then go into the main committee room with the relevant officers and thrash the matter out at a seminar. This no holds barred situation is my kind of forum – no rules, no standing orders, no limit on speaking rights, no silly bloody conflict of interest rules – simply an honest investigation of whatever the matter may be. Often broad agreement is found at the seminars and the matter then goes on to a committee agenda. The matter or issue can then be debated in a more formal forum and the recommendations of the officers are tabled in writing. At any time councillors can introduce new information or comment on presented information before a vote is taken. In practice much of that comment has been made at the seminar stage and for some, only needs to be repeated when the press is present.

If passed at the committee stage the issue goes to the full council and generally goes through without too much further comment apart from a degree of political grandstanding.

So that’s how the system works in Napier and it is one of the reasons why Napier people are far more satisfied with their elected representatives than others are with theirs.