Local Bodies

Eric Roy is my local MP, he is one of National's more prominent Blue Greens, he supports the science behind anthropogenic climate change and I find him more knowledgeable than many regarding alternative energy. I bumped into him this evening as we boarded a plane to Invercargill and used the opportunity to get his opinion on the Fiordland monorail and Hollyford Tunnel proposals. Eric was quite candid in expressing his views, and while he didn't claim to outright oppose either project, he questioned their economic credibility. I have heard from engineers (with tunneling expertise) that the $160 million that Milford Dart Ltd (MDL) have estimated the tunnel will cost, is substantially underdone. Even if this was the cost of creating the 11.3 kilometre bus only tunnel, it is difficult to imagine how this expense could be recouped by tourist buses alone. Of course there will also need to be the added cost of substantially upgrading the roads at either end and considering this ...

Despite the fact that education is one of the few sectors in New Zealand that is performing well in international terms this National led Government have spent a good amount of time, money and angst to force through comprehensive systemic change. Rather than have a high quality public system that has been built on a culture of collaboration and research, they want to introduce a more competitive culture where schools will be compared and ranked by targeted criteria. The fact that there has been no support for this approach in research and that no high performing eduction system uses this model has been deliberately ignored. Martin Thrupp's research into how National Standards have had an impact on the learning culture of schools has already come up with clear indications that concerning changes have occurred. Our narrow focus on literacy and numeracy has seen other learning areas suffer and a decline in science achievement  and engagement has already been noted. Even thoug...

I have written a number of posts expressing concern at the growing wealth of our rich elite and the simultaneous, and probably related, growth in poverty. I want to make it clear that I suffer no envy towards the rich (I am financially comfortable) and don't blame them for the growing income inequities within our society. If I appear to spend an inordinate amount of time perusing the "Rich List" it is only to get a general idea of how our economy operates and where the money tends to settle. In actual fact I admire the rich, they are hard working, proactive, innovative and generally able to spot opportunities for business where others may not. Many of our richest New Zealanders are philanthropists and invest a good amount of their wealth back into the community. If we ignore a particular group of financiers, our wealthiest people generally work within the law (although many may have undue influence on the construction of those laws) and actively support our country...

I am not an economist (although I did study economics at high school in the 70s) and yet I can clearly see glaring examples of economic mismanagement by this National led Government. This became even more obvious over the last two days after reading a copy of the NBR's "Rich List 2012" and then hearing the news report that the incomes of Maori and Pasifika families had dropped considerably over the last four years. Since first becoming the Government in 2008 National has made it very clear that it is the already wealthy who deserve the most support and ordinary New Zealand workers and families need to make sacrifices to ensure the flow of money goes up, not down to those who need it the most. Dropping the tax rate to upper income earners has been the largest contributor to growing our income inequities and declining government income. Tax revenue plummeted in the two years following the tax cuts by $5.7 billion and the claim that this would be off set by an increas...

The National led Government is a conservative government and as such they prefer the reassurance of long held ideologies and views. They call themselves "centre right" and while they reject the hardline Neo Liberal views of the Roger Douglas brigade, this is more to do with political pragmatism than a rejection of the philosophy. I'm sure if voters were amenable, they would embrace a flat tax and the privatisation of everything. Risk taking for National is using contemporary research and academic thinking to inform policy. How can you trust anything that hasn't been around for fifty years or more? Scientific confirmation that greenhouse gases were contributing to climate change was widely accepted by much of the scientific community in the fifties and sixties and although few National MPs will question it now, there is still a lack of urgency in acting on this knowledge. The Emissions Trading Scheme was never fully supported by the Green Party when Labour fir...

Since 2008 John and his National Party playmates have been carefully stacking cards to build a "brighter future" for all New Zealanders. Each card provides the structural support for another and they have been busy stacking them higher and higher while telling anyone who will listen how skilled they are at doing this. John bragged that they could make a tower as tall as Australia's. John and Bill began the base of the structure with the "lowering the tax for the rich" card and Nick placed the "weakening of the ETS" cards on top. Gerry was a bit careless with his "drilling, mining and fracking our future" cards and caused a bit of a shake as thousands marched up Queen Street to protest their placement, and then Christchurch shook (but I don't think he was responsible for that). Gerry slightly adjusted the wobbling mining cards and then was given the responsibility of placing and supporting the "Christchurch recovery" card. ...

$10,000 "Hobbit" home I currently organize Green Drinks for Invercargill , this is an apolitical social group that meets monthly in a local cafe. This was originally started by Invercargill Transition Towns as a way of connecting all those who share similar green ideals, aspirations and lifestyles. We often invite people with expertise in a given area or have a particular theme, but mostly we just enjoy talking to like minded people about topical issues or life in general. I have decided to have energy saving houses as a theme this week as many people I know are building new homes and trying to make them as energy efficient as possible. My youngest sister and her husband have relocated and refurbished a house onto a few hectares of land and will be off the grid and largely self sufficient. They wanted to install a composting toilet and recycle all their grey water but the costs of local body compliance has been huge and they have had to compromise on many of their ide...