Maritime New Zealand Underfunded

-

Proper governance should involve maintaining a high degree of future planning and defining priorities based on evidence and good advice. A government must also make sure that they maintain a strong sense of purpose that will not be swayed by a myriad of of lobbyists, who will all claim their particular interests deserve the most attention.

I have already described the issues around the liberalised regulations controlling our coastal shipping and serious concerns were raised by Laila Harre as far back as 1997. One would think that given the dodgy state of many of our coastal ships, often with crews employed on minimum wages, that the potential for disaster must be increased. The damage caused by the Rena must surely have been predicted as a possibility, given the incidents that have occurred internationally, and yet the funding for Maritime New Zealand has been frozen on a paltry $5.7 million.

I would have to question the logic of this National Government, as well as the previous Labour Government, when considering the real threats to this country. More is spent on the SIS, who in 2008 had a budget of $38.1 million, to protect us from terrorists. The SIS have had a lengthy history of incompetence with Ahmed Zaoui proving to be unjustifiably labeled as a terrorist threat and any substantial act of terrorism or espionage (Rainbow Warrior, Mossad passport theft) were missed completely.

The New Zealand Air Force managed to get over $300 million to update their Orion aircraft ostensibly to improve surveillance of our territorial waters. Through reading Nicky Hager's book it becomes apparent that the real reason was to make them compatible with British and United States forces and allowed them to directly support the war in Iraq. I have since been told that satellites are far more cost effective (and generally just more effective) than an Orion for surveillance off our shores.

I strongly support Russel Norman's call for a Royal Commission review on the management of the Rena disaster and I think any future government needs a serious rethink about where our priorities should be as regards protecting our shores and invest accordingly. Our current defense spending is based on ideological ghosts and misinformation, not on realities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The US is actually unique for not valuing life!

-
Image
"...that’s what sets America apart from every other country; we value life. That is what makes us unique.” - Sarah Sanders There is a high level of delusion operating in the White House. The stream of mistruths that come out of President Trump and Sarah Sanders' mouths are clearly blatant lies but millions of US citizens believe them. With daily diets of Fox News and living in a very insular culture , there is little that challenges these false perceptions of US "greatness".  When comparing the United States of America with most other developed nations it becomes clear that it probably places less value on life than most and doesn't compare well with many developing countries too: If the US really valued life then it would abolish the death penalty, it is the only Western Country that executes people under law ( 23 people were executed in 2018 ).  If the US really valued life then it would have an equitable and universal health care system. The cur...
Read more

NZ Olympic Team Exposes Inequality

-
Image
The inequalities within our New Zealand society has been starkly revealed in our Olympic Team according to sports journalist Dylan Cleaver. The team is largely white, with the rugby sevens sneaking in the few brown faces. This is a damning indictment on the lack of inclusiveness in many of our sporting codes and their spending. When one considers how many of our   internationally successful athletes  are Polynesian then it seems shortsighted to make participation in so many sports dependent on family income. By 2038 the Super Diversity Stocktake has determined that 51% of New Zealanders will be Maori, Pasifika or Asian and those of European descent will be in the minority. Despite this reality the majority of the funds coming from High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) goes to sports that require considerable expense to participate in: rowing, cycling, sailing, equestrian, triathlon. Even sports like athletics and swimming, that don't have such a heavy equipment outl...
Read more

The Destruction of New Zealand's Public Education System

-
Image
In 2008 New Zealand was internationally ranked in the top seven for educational achievement, and when you compared us with other countries that were also culturally diverse and experiencing growing inequality, we were extremely successful. At that time our Early Childhood sector had received a much overdue boost in funding from the Labour Government after being underfunded (as a % of GDP) compared to other OECD nations for years. The sector was working towards a target of having 100% qualified teachers in all centres. We were also in the process of implementing a new National Curriculum and a complementary curriculum for Maori ( Te Marautanga o Aotearoa ). Teachers were excited about putting all their energies into the new ideas and approaches that were espoused in these co-constructed documents that had taken around seven years to review and write. Evidence, research and practitioner input had created something that would allow us to prepare New Zealand children to become ...
Read more