Bill Dalton

Last week the Hon Dr. Nick Smith gave his annual speech to the Nelson Rotary Club.

Dr. Smith is, of course, the Minister for Local Government and some of the figures he quoted were extremely interesting and some were simply alarming.

The 78 councils in New Zealand are responsible for $100 billion worth of public assets, employ 23,000 people, spend $7.5 billion of public money each year and every day make thousands of regulatory decisions that impact on the lives of all New Zealanders.

Interesting stuff.

But alarmingly, over the last decade average rates across the country have risen by 6.8% per annum – more than twice the rate of inflation. Rates have gone up more than any other component of the consumer price index. Equally alarming is the fact that council debt has quadrupled over the same period.

These are really concerning figures and yet the local press shows no interest in taking up the issue. Why don’t we see articles that include these figures? Why don’t we see articles that show how our local councils have performed over the last decade against each other and against the national average? Surely at a time when our councils are considering a study on the future economic performance of the Bay, this sort of information would be of interest to readers.

Frankly as a city councilor I don’t know the figures and I would like to.

It is interesting to note that whilst rates have risen 6.8% per annum over the last decade, over the previous decade the increase was only 3.9%. Clearly after the loony leftie Local Body Minister Sandra Lee, dumped a whole lot more duties and responsibilities on councils in 2002, costs began to escalate. That would suggest to me that whilst some councils became more efficient and absorbed many of the additional costs, others increased their indebtedness and have increased rates to service the debt.

I challenge the local press to seek the relevant information from the various councils and to publish an article showing how they have performed over the last decade in terms of rates and debt against each other and the national figures supplied by Dr. Smith.

I for one would be interested in seeing the figures,

Greetings – its 2012. In fact the first month is almost gone. Time flies when you are having fun!

2011 was a tough year and frankly 2012 looks like being tougher. In terms of the world economy, the New Zealand economy is like a cork in the sea – it goes in whatever direction the tide is going. The economic tide is certainly not going in New Zealand’s direction right now. Corruption and excesses have destroyed the economies of several Eurozone countries to the point where the Euro currency is under threat. These things impact negatively on the New Zealand economy.

However, if we are having to endure tough times, there is no better country in the world in which to endure them than New Zealand and no better place in New Zealand than Hawkes Bay.

Why then are there so many people in Hawkes Bay bagging the place? Why do we have people in positions of influence, determined to make Hawkes Bay look like the lawless, economic basket case of New Zealand?

Whilst I vehemently disagree with them, Lawrence Yule and his cohorts in Better HB, have taken an understandable position. Appalling but understandable. They are so determined to force amalgamation on Hawkes Bay that they are prepared to blacken the image of our wonderful province. Their modus operandi is clearly one that endeavours to show that we are such an economic and social failure, that only amalgamation can save us.

Their argument is lost on many and in my view, only undermines the good work that is going on in the Bay.

Now the HB Today has joined the fray and insists on running negative headlines wherever possible.

On Saturday they ran the headline “Bay among worst for AOS call-outs”. Anybody walking past the newsstands would immediately conclude that the fact that the Armed Offenders Squad was being called out more frequently would suggest we were becoming a much more violent place. The article went on to quote senior police officers saying that a change of responsibility meant squads now provided assistance for drug operations. More robust risk assessments was another factor. Frankly the article did not support the alarmist headline.

The world we live in is certainly not a perfect place. But the place in the world we are lucky enough to live in is as good as it gets. Sure it can be improved and there is good solid work going on to see that, that happens.

But that work is not being helped by those with an alternative agenda.