Local Bodies

Don Brash made a hard hitting speech to Federated Farmers today that revealed much about how he thinks and what his true values are. Through my discussions with local farmers I have become aware that Federated Farmers does not fully represent the farming community and large numbers of farmers believe that the organization promotes extreme views that they are not comfortable with. It is obvious that when Don spoke to this group that he felt his views would be well received and while there were no standing ovations, there were no challenges to what he said. The most controversial statement was his description of local RMA bureaucrats as "Little Hitlers" who got in the way of reasonable progress. According to Brash if someone owns land there should be no restrictions on what they do with it and petty bureaucracy needs to be dealt to. Of course, putting to one side the inappropriate "Hitler" comment, he has probably highlighted an issue that many may have experienced...

Nick Smith is in town and having to confront some of our nation's most challenging environmental issues. This will be a real test of his commitment to protect the environment from catastrophic events and show, post election, what we can really expect from this government environmentally. He faced his first hurdle when confronted by an excellent question from local environmentalist, Chris Henderson. Nick had been promoting the fact that any lignite mining in New Zealand would be modeled on international best practice and Chris' reasonable question "Minister, can you tell us, where is the world's best practice example of lignite mining?" stopped him in his tracks. He wasn't able to give an answer. Of course the most immediate issue demanding the Minister's attention is the imminent "flipping" of the Waituna lagoon. Russel Norman put the issue high on his agenda and changed his programme earlier in the year to spend time looking at the problem ...

The StateServices Commission, the Treasury and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet have completed a combine report on the performance of the Education Ministry. This report was presumably instigated after the Ministry was ranked near the bottom of 37 Government departments in an earlier review. The ten areas assessed were given either an A, B or C. An "A" represented a strong result, a "B" represented being well placed to achieve and a "C'' indicated some development was needed. REPORT CARD A   Experiences of the public B   Curriculum and National Standards B   Early Childhood Education B   Provision of Special Education Services C   Vision, Strategy and Purpose C   Leadership and Governance C   Engagement with Staff C   Efficiency C   Delivering the Tertiary Education Strategy C   Provision of Infrastructure for Schools It is difficult not see this report in the context of the $25 million in cut...

After thirty years of teaching I have learned one or two things through the experience of just doing the job. The most important thing I have learned is that children only really learn and progress if they believe themselves capable of doing so and their self belief is hugely reliant on others believing in them. Treating children with respect, consistency and fairness also goes a long way to getting respect from them and creating a positive and productive working environment. Strangely enough I have found that when I apply similar principles to adults, when I am in a management role, it also produces huge benefits to the worksite atmosphere and staff performance. This government has sent clear messages to the New Zealand workforce that they don't back them or believe in them. They refuse to recognize that our workers should be paid a livable wage and so devalue the work that many do. They outsource manufacturing when a workforce capable of producing the same things already exi...

In many ways Alasdair Thompson reflects a leadership style that once existed but has had a resurgence under this National Government. The sort of arrogant, bullying behaviour that Thompson continually displayed when confronted with legitimate requests for evidence was embarrassing enough but it took some very old fashioned sexist comments to fully expose the man and provide some real media pressure. Thompson's inept handling of the whole situation meant that his attempts to explain himself and apologize dug an even deeper hole and only served to support Catherine Delahunty's bill even further. The passion and media attention given to this whole incident is was fully justified given the position that Thompson holds but it concerns me that there is a lack of media consistency when we have been confronted with similar ineptitude by other figures of authority. The aspect that has been lost through the whole menstrual saga is that this is not just an example of one man's ign...

Despite its huge industrial expansion and reliance on fossil fuel to drive economic growth, China's carbon footprint per capita is still less than New Zealand. Admittedly China's population is immense when compared to New Zealand and on a global scale the damaging emissions from China are far worse than ours, but it still means as a country we aren't doing the best that we can. While China has used coal to initially grow their economy, there is general acceptance that this is not an energy source that is sustainable or environmentally viable into the future. China is now a world leader in renewable and clean energy and its exports of solar and wind powered technology is becoming an increasingly important part of their economy. China is also building the world's most ambitious ecocity , that will serve as a model for future urban development across the country. It is difficult to see how our "Clean Green", "100% Pure" claims will hold fast with ...

As long as the Green Party has existed there has been a strong relationship between the Party and the people of the South. When many parties are afraid to make a stand on a local issue, and local MPs appear to go into hiding, it is the Green MPs who have been the most conspicuous. Rob Donald had been a passionate supporter of retaining provincial building societies and banks in local ownership and when an initiative to align a parliamentarian with business was instigated, Rod became an enthusiastic supporter of the SBS bid to remain independent. A member of the current board recently told me the high regard the board had for Rod regarding his advocacy on their behalf. Rod was also prominent during Invercargill's disastrous schooling review. A combination of Trevor Mallard's rash statement regarding the viability of some secondary schools and poor process by the Ministry of Education caused the loss of the diversity in schooling that Invercargill once enjoyed. At one of the...