Local Bodies

Today I was treated to the hospitality of the Awarua Runanga at their wonderful Cliff Whiting decorated  Te Rua Aroha  Marae and wharenui. The Powhiri included an acknowledgement of the Green Party by Sir Tipene O'Regan and some "foot in mouth" moments from the Deputy Prime Minister, Bill English, when he put down northern iwi in an attempt to curry favor with Ngai Tahu. Sir Tipene explained the background of the constitutional review that he and Professor John Burrows are chairing. He described a constitution as being the overarching rules that dictate how we manage ourselves through legislation and law. Rather than just letting ivory towered academics dictate the form it may take he  would like the people of New Zealand to have an input on how they want New Zealand to be. Bill English and Pita Sharples are the parliamentary representatives who will present the final report to Cabinet. Bill explained that the review will be carried out independently of politicians ...

Dear Sir Every time the government announces a new education initiative I can't help seeing them in the form of a Tui advertisement. $25 million dollars cut from the Ministry of Education to improve front line services. "Aspirational" National Standards forced onto all children to help those who are failing. Schools closed and class sizes increased to enable "better-quality teaching". Charter Schools , after mixed results in countries ranked well beneath us, being introduced to improve educational delivery in vulnerable communities. I do struggle to see how cutting funding to the Ministry, forcing flawed or untested systems onto our children and increasing class sizes will improve our top five international ranking for educational achievement. I guess I should accept that I'm just a "politically motivated" teacher who has no idea about what is good for education a...

Waitangi Day brings out all those who suffer from Maori envy, people who see every Treaty settlement and claim as pure greed and a lucrative gravy train, and yet I would say it is Key’s mates, the business elite,  who are on on a gravy train. More than half the the settlements for individual iwi were for smaller sums than what Andrew Farrier has earned as CEO of Fonterra and three of them for less than Tony Marryatt’s annual salary. The Government’s donation to the America’s Cup challenge was also bigger than most treaty settlements . It also cost us twice as much as all the treaty settlements together to bail out South Canterbury Finance (over $400 for every man, women and child in NZ). Rather than attacking Maori I think we should be building alliances with them with the common   objective of restricting asset sales. We have far more to worry about regarding losing our nation’s sovereignty over our land and core infrastructure then perceived treaty entitlements. Section ...

This National Government is so  ideologically driven  and so determined to shut out the professional voice of teacher organisations that it ignores all research and reason to drive through changes that will be hugely damaging to children and our international standing. To force the flawed  Charter School system  on our struggling Christchurch communities with no educational justification will only create even greater stress to communities that desperately need continuity and stability. To have  Catherine Isaac , who has no significant education background, leading this change is equally appalling. The quality of a nation's education and health systems are generally considered to be key indicators of an advanced society and in the most recent comparisons New Zealand is ranked 41st in the world for our  health system and 4th for education . One country that achieves better than us in both areas and has a similar population and general culture is Finl...

Bernie Napp, Senior Policy Analyst, Straterra. Dave Kennedy challenges me (January 28) to name New Zealand towns that have achieved average to above-average prosperity directly through mining coal or lignite. The real comparison is between a "mining town", if there is such a thing today, at that same town before mining. In the case of Waihi, an aerial photo shows that the town has been built around the open pit. Were it not for this gold mine there would be little or no town at all. Perhaps the closest thing to a mining town in New Zealand is Reefton (gold, coal), which had many new houses and freshly painted houses when I visited in 2010. Mr Kennedy accuses me unjustly of an "attempt to misinform the Mataura people" by including oil and gas in the resource sector median-salary figure. Skilled underground coal and gold miners in New Zealand can earn more than $100,000 a year. But to offer a vision for Mr kennedy, if mining was properly encouraged and manage...

National radio provided some interesting listening this morning when it revealed that the 14% increase to Christchurch CEO's pay followed concerning performance reviews . The $68,000 increase granted to Tony Marryatt had already provided a slap in the face to struggling Christchurch ratepayers but the revelation that there was documented evidence of declining performance was a shocker. This debacle highlights two issues in my mind, firstly the need to review the true value of CEOs in the public and private sectors and secondly the quality of decision making processes at local government level. The most prevalent argument in support of excessive CEO salaries is that there is a competitive international market for competent leaders and if we are not prepared to meet "market" rates we will not attract quality applicants and will lose those we already employ. This line of thinking has led to exploding salaries at the top end and has seen the ratio of the average pay of CEO...

Bernie Napp, the senior policy analyst from Straterra, attempted to dismiss comments from Green MP Julie Anne Genter, however the obvious duplicity revealed in his letter to the Southland Times is almost farcical. I would like to correct Green MP Julie Anne Center on her bizarre claim that no mining town in New Zealand has ever enjoyed benefits (Mataura split on mining benefits, January 25). In 2010 the New Zealand Insti- tute of Economic Research report- ed that the median wage for a mining employee, including in oil and gas, was $57,320 in 2008, compared to the New Zealand median of $33,530. It is wrong to use Waihi as an example of a mining town because people in that industry in Waihi also live at Waihi Beach, Katikati and elsewhere. Consider also the benefits to users of resources. As matters stand, New Zealand gas and coal are essential inputs into the dairy, wood and timber processing, horticulture and other industries. Indeed, if there were no energy and minerals, whethe...