Bill Dalton

There are those amongst us who would ban gambling, drinking and I’m sure a bit of the other if they could preserve the human race without it.

The fact is controlling all so called vices, will always be “walking a fine line” for decision makers.

Making decisions, rules and laws to protect those who are vulnerable in our society in terms of alcohol and gambling, is always going to be challenging. Those who propose a total ban would deprive those who like to, say – have a day out at the races – a few bets – a couple of drinks – a good sociable day out. Of course at the races or anywhere else there is alcohol, there are always those that get sloshed and make a nuisance of themselves but is that enough reason to ban drinking?

Gambling is an even bigger issue for society. At least when someone abuses alcohol it becomes obvious to all but when someone becomes an addicted gambler, it is often not obvious to anyone until great damage is done.

Poker machines are the talking point right now. Again there are those who would say we don’t need them – get rid of them. Those people should speak to members of any sporting or cultural club and ask them where they get a large part of their funding. They should try and imagine what life in their community would be like if there were no sports clubs or pottery clubs or theatre groups.

There is great debate about what number of machines is appropriate for a certain community. In Napier there are those who are alarmed that we have significantly more machines per head of population then do other centres. These people support the Councils “sinking lid” policy and want to see the number of machines dropped to the national average.

Why should we aspire to being average?

We should be sitting down and deciding what number of poker machines is acceptable for Napier and what sites are appropriate for them to be installed in. And if that’s more or less then the national average – so be it.

If we are going to ban or restrict poker machines then we should apply the same rules to Lotto. Why not – it’s just another form of gambling. I would love to know how much funding Lotto has put into the Hawke’s Bay community.

And we are applying to the very gaming trusts whose activities we are trying to restrict, for funding for our own pet projects. Isn’t that hypocritical?

So we need to make sensible and practical decisions around gambling – and poker machines in particular – not silly superficially warm and fuzzy emotional decisions.

It has been calculated – I would prefer to use the word estimated, that in the 18 months to June 2009, one third of the world’s wealth disappeared.

When I say wealth, much of that wealth was really only perceived wealth. I well recall visiting folk in America. They were in their 60’s, had a nice home, a car and what the yanks call a truck and a RV (motor home) parked up their drive. To the casual observer, this was the home of a reasonably well-off couple. Yet chatting to the fellow over a BBQ, he admitted that they had about 25% equity in the lot. Such was, and I emphasise was, the way of life of the average American.

Now in the States, especially in the industrial belt, the place is virtually in ruins. In Detroit, the home of the car industry, it is estimated that there are between 30 and 40 thousand homes that have simply been abandoned. The local authority is bankrupt. It will take decades for some of these industrial cities to recover and most of them will never recover to what they were.

So how did all this come about and I suppose if we boil it all down to its most simple level, there is only one word for it – greed.

Since the late 30’s in America, if you took out a mortgage and couldn’t service it, you could walk away from your home with nothing. The bank would then get what they could for the home but they couldn’t pursue for any shortfall.

Because you had walked away from a mortgage you were regarded as being sub-prime. No one would lend to you – you were committed to a life of renting.

Then the greedy boys said – “We can lend to these sub-prime people and charge them plenty. We can make a fortune.” And to get the punters in, they gave them very low interest rates for the first two years. As soon as the mortgage was written they flogged it off to a merchant bank which subsequently securitised it.

Of course when the true interest rates kicked in, the borrowers could not service their loans and so the sub-prime crisis began to snowball.

We moan and groan about rules and regulations here in New Zealand but I guess it is better than living in the Wild West.

I would like to congratulate Bay FM for taking up the challenge of providing community comment spots for local commentators. Clearly Newstalk ZB believes that Hawke’s Bay radio listeners will be happy with a constant diet of regurgitated guff from Auckland or elsewhere but I have always believed there is a place for local content on our radio waves.

Well done Bay FM.

And a happy New Year to you all. 2010 promises to be a year of slow but steady recovery from the economic ills that have plagued the world for the last couple of years.

When you look around the world, New Zealand has weathered the economic storm better then most. There are still some enormous hurdles to jump but unemployment seems to have peaked, investment markets are certainly improving and business confidence is climbing.

There are still some very clear problems in the economy. The hangover (in more ways than one) of commercial property from the finance company sector meltdown is affecting yields and prices in that market. Partly completed developments are a real problem because banks are reluctant to lend new owners the funds to complete these projects and some may never be completed.

Whilst every area is different, the Auckland domestic property sector is interesting. Top end properties in the $2m plus bracket are simply not moving.

Mid-priced properties are selling because people in that bracket generally have substantial equity. However, lower priced properties are struggling because the banks are now demanding greater deposits and people can simply not save 20% of the value of a property.

I am guessing that Hawke’s Bay is not too different.

Another feature of 2010 is that it is local body election year and if the past is any indication of the future, most people will not be the slightest bit interested. Aspiring local body politicians will pollute the environment with their ugly signs, they’ll troop from poorly attended campaign meeting to poorly attended campaign meeting and eventually, some will be elected by the very few, who bother to vote.

For some reason, local body politics simply does not create the interest in the community that central politics does and yet, if there is one political level that citizens can have a direct influence over, it is local body politics.

Despite that, most of the people who tend to get involved in the process, apart from the aspiring politicians themselves, are single issue nutters who are not prepared to see the bigger picture.

Sad really but that is the way it is.