Bill Dalton

One of the thoroughly enjoyable aspects of being a City Councillor is that you get to go to a lot of “feel good” functions.

Recently Napier City recognised a small group of people who had made amazing contributions to their community. How some of these people have managed to find the time to serve in such a way just amazes me.

A couple of nights ago the Civil Defence Minister, John Carter, presented awards to some of our long serving civil defence personnel. Again it amazes me that so many people can find the time to serve an organisation such as civil defence on a purely voluntary basis. It really does restore your faith in your fellow man.

And we need to celebrate these people. And we need to learn to say thank you to them – to tell them that these efforts are appreciated.

On Sunday a large group of well known Napier performers put on a concert in the Municipal Theatre in aid of the Christmas Cheer appeal. It was a good little show and hopefully from these modest beginnings, it will grow into an annual charity concert that will be on everyone’s calendar. But again everyone gave their time freely, even those who would normally charge for their professional performances.

And then there are people like Ross Holden here at the Radio Network. Ross has always been incredibly community minded and has given many hours to charitable events. In the interests of community radio, Ross has put in hour after hour over and above his normal work hours to ensure local events were advertised and reported, especially in the sporting field.

At a time when everything is being centred in the main centres, when our local community paper has been sold to a major, Ross Holden has been a great voice for his community. Well done Ross.

I can tell you it makes me feel good to live in such a caring community and to know that, especially at this time of the year, those less fortunate are not forgotten. So well done Napier folk – keep up the good work.

In the last couple of days I have read a couple of very interesting reports.

The first was a glowing endorsement of everything the Port of Napier has done and is doing. In fact the article concluded by suggesting that the Port of Napier, is a “model that works.”

The second very interesting piece I read was the very thorough report, prepared by Westshore resident Larry Dallimore, on Westshore Beach erosion.

Napier is very fortunate to have a resident like Larry Dallimore who has the time, the energy and the knowledge to prepare such a detailed report. I congratulate him.

I started by skimming it and got so interested I went back and studied the full report in detail. It is a very good piece of research and I have to say, the timeline that the report produces, provides compelling evidence that the erosion problem that the City of Napier now faces at Westshore is, in part at least, the result of works done at the Port of Napier.

I have always felt this was the case and Larry Dallimore’s report confirms my view.

The major conclusion of Larry’s report is that the Westshore beach, as some of us old codgers remember it, is gone forever. No amount of playing around with groynes, artificial reefs or breakwaters, is going to get us a sandy beach back. What is needed is a sea wall to protect our coastline.

Now I’m no engineer but its obvious to me that by deflecting the force of waves, you are simply transferring the erosion problem from one part of the beach to another. And it seems amazing to me that we as Councillors are not listening to Larry Dallimore, who is a long term resident and observer of Westshore and a man who has a long history in the heavy civil engineering contracting business - yet we place total faith in a bunch of engineers, sitting in an office somewhere, studying simulations on a computer.

Perhaps we as a council need to have yet another look at this problem and perhaps the Port of Napier needs to be putting some funds aside towards remedial work at Westshore.

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.

I am delighted that the government has announced that there will be a referendum on MMP although it appears to me that the long drawn out process is planned to fail.

No one likes change and the whole MMP process has been managed to give it time to be accepted before the question of its future as an electoral system is challenged.

But whilst I appear to be increasingly in the minority, I am still of the opinion that MMP is a ridiculous system.

Take the Napier electorate as an example – and I stress I am not critical of the people involved – I am strongly critical of the system.

We had an elected Labour MP – Russell Fairbrother. Along came the National candidate, Chris Tremain and he beat Russell fair and square. The people of Napier said “We want Chris Tremain to be our representative in the House of Representatives”. So off Chris went to Wellington but so did Russell. He was high enough on the list to get back in.

Then in to town on his big red charger rode Stuart Nash. He challenged Russell Fairbrother for the Labour nomination and lost. The Labour party said we don’t want you Stuart, we want Russell, so Stuart went off and began the restructure of the Art Deco Trust.

At the next election Chris Tremain trounced Russell Fairbrother and Russell went back to the private sector feeling like the lucky lion who had escaped from the zoo.

Then the odd Labour member decided to go and do something else and a vacancy occurred in Wellington. So they rang Stuart and said “How would you like a seat in the House of Representatives?”, and off Stuart went to Wellington.

Who is he representing? Chris Tremain is our elected representative – the Labour Party rejected Stuart – how can we possibly accept a system that has people sitting in our House of Representatives who represent no-one?

And what does an opposition list MP do all day? They’ve got no constituents, can achieve nothing in Wellington – frankly they are just a spare part – a spare part in an electoral machine that needs a full overhaul.

Well before I became a Napier City Councillor, I made the call to link the Napier CBD with Ahuriri using an appropriate public vehicle.

One of the first things I did as a City Councillor was to renew that call and the Council Officers are now investigating that proposition as part of their review of Marineland and other tourism facilities.

Exactly one year ago on this radio station, I again canvassed the idea of a tourist link between the Aquarium and the old Customs House in Ahuriri.

Now Councillor Mark Herbert has embraced the idea but he wants to install a transport system that was all the vogue over 100 years ago.

Well I’ve got to tell you Herbie – I would not want to be the one who had to tell Marine Parade residents that their peace was going to be destroyed as we installed the tracks down an already narrow transport corridor – as we installed the ugly poles that will carry the untidy mess of wires overhead. I would not want to be the one who had to tell the Motelliers along Marine Parade that their ongoing peace was going to be shattered by noisy trams and that the view from their premium rooms would be blighted by the ugly infrastructure required by trams.

And what about at the other end? Hardinge Road would look great with poles and wires everywhere and if we decided to sneak down the bypass there could be major disruption to port traffic.

In my view, a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem makes no sense at all. We need to be thinking about an aesthetically pleasing, environmentally sound, energy efficient solution that gives us flexibility. For instance, it may turn out that the service is only viable for 6 months of the year. Nothing could be a sadder look for a city than all the infrastructure that trams require sitting there with no trams running.

So I support Councillor Herbert in his call for a proper link between Napier’s CBD and Ahuriri – I just don’t think that old fashioned trams are the answer.

What next Herbie – are we going to see Vinnie delivering our council papers on a Penny Farthing.

I don’t know about you but this Global Warming argument is starting to wear a bit thin with me. We’ve just had the coldest winter I can remember – two weeks of spring – then straight back into the depths of winter. Right now you could make a very good argument for the place to be warmed up.

And as I sat by the fire on Sunday night, reports were coming in telling us that hundreds were stranded on the Napier-Taupo Road. But the report that really got me thinking on Sunday night was the one that told me that the police, including the armed offender’s squad, were pursuing a dangerous armed offender through rural southern Hawke’s Bay. These poor cops had been dragged away from their warm homes and families, to trudge through mud, snow and sleet, knowing that at any time the offender could take a pot shot at them.

These cops were working, as it turned out, long hours in appalling climatic conditions, in distinct danger and you know, as a society we take them for granted.

We pay them appalling wages and we don’t even think enough of them to provide them with decent working conditions. I have been in both Napier and Hastings police stations in recent times and the working conditions we ask our cops to work in are simply, in my opinion, unacceptable. Appalling interview rooms, lack of good clerical equipment, smoko rooms that are an insult to the staff, nowhere for the staff to put their bags so they all end up down the hall, the list goes on.

Right next door to the Hastings police station, the government has built a new courthouse and the court staff is justifiably proud of it. Wonderful facilities for all the staff, brilliant facilities for those accused of crimes and – well I won’t go into the palatial facilities for judges.

My argument is simply this. Somehow we can find the funds to build beautiful new courthouses whilst at the same time we deny our front line police what I would consider basic amenities.

And don’t start me on cost cutting by cutting down the number of police cars, etc.

It is high time we recognised the job our policemen and women do and rewarded them appropriately in every way.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the “Sponsors Night” for the Hawke’s Bay A & P Mercedes Wine Awards.

It was a great night – the wines were magnificent, the venue at Elephant Hill Winery was world class – it made me feel very privileged to live in this part of the world. I must say though that the last round of reds was probably unnecessary.

This afternoon the Napier City and Hastings District Councils are having a combined meeting followed by a dinner – at Councillors own expense, I hasten to add. I have to say I am really looking forward to a frank and open discussion about the future of our region and in particular a review of the collaborative projects that are already under way and an investigation of where other efficiencies can be found.

Clearly there is a completely different view of what constitutes a prudent financial structure, between Napier and Hastings Councils.

Napier, which in recent years has benefitted from strong and conservative financial management, prides itself on having just $12 million of external debt. Lawrence Yule is quoted in this morning’s Dominion as saying Hastings debt is likely to rise to $101 million over the next few years but that doesn’t matter because Hastings has got plenty of assets.

Debt is not serviced by assets and ratepayers don’t pay their rates with assets.

Debt is serviced with cash and cash comes from the ratepayers. So, great dollops of debt incurred by a Council will have a direct affect on ratepayers.

But the Councils need to talk more and today is a good start. I want to know why, at a time when amalgamation is a possibility, Hastings is blazing on incurring large amounts of debt to build new reception centres and sports parks in the middle of nowhere.

It seems to me that if Lawrence and his team are serious about amalgamation, they would be aware that debt levels are going to be a major issue.

But I’m going in with an open mind and to listen to the views of the Hastings councillors. And just to prove I am open to good argument, I watched Q & A on Sunday and found myself in full agreement with Richard Prebble.

Who would have thought?