Someone's got to sort this mess out
Source Wai Manuka launches in New York Alisha McLennan Wai Manuka is making strides in New York, receiving a second order only two weeks after company’s first order landed. Chief executive Joe Harawira said the demand from New York was growing at a rapid rate. Last week, Wai Mānuka launched into high-end retail chain Citarella […]
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In 2025, as we look towards Nicola Willis’s second budget it seems everyone is talking about National’s unaffordable $14 billion tax cuts. In 2024, Whakatane was doing more than talk about them. The Postpone The Tax Cuts campaign by the Whakatane Act Local group were taking to the streets of our hometown calling for the […]
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Every council in Aotearoa agrees and every economist accepts that government keeping the GST portion of our rates is a ‘tax on a tax’. Government needs to get back to basics and stop treating ratepayers like a bottomless ATM . Return the $1.1 billion GST component of rates back to councils.
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I think we are all focussed as a community, as a world even, on what divides us and what we disagree on.
We stand far apart from each other and shout across a huge divide, no one prepared to give an ideological centimetre to their opponents.
But what good is that doing?
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The solution has to be based on users of the service and I think the proactiveness of the Chamber of Commerce in this leads to the solution. At the same time all users will most likely have to accept less competitive fares. The first step is with the airline itself. The airline has to have a business friendly timetable at the heart of a solution however. Then I think the business community needs to step up and form some sort of compact with Air Chathams where business users agree to pay ‘business class’ tickets. These are the same tickets as regular passengers but are more expensive and offer Air Chathams practical support from those most able to provide it, to the people who will benefit from it the most – our businesses.
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Gearing up for the local body election campaign where I am running and have the opposition scared witless. A local poll was held last weekend by my opponents and I was winning so my opponents deleted my name off it. The wont be able to do that in the real world. Follow me on Instagram […]
Continue ReadingIf you have spent about 5 minutes on the pages that are promoting the National led coalition government’s local council agenda you’ll have heard them swoon when the PM addressed the local council conference and told them his lot were going to amend the law and insist councils stopped doing things other than collecting the […]
Continue ReadingSource Australia is now in the thick of a federal election cycle, the United States just came out of one and in New Zealand, the fallout from the last national election has brought into focus a part of the political machine often out of view. To a voter’s naked eye, the impact of think tanks […]
Continue ReadingMy coalition aligned opponents are forever finding new electoral promises that they say will reduce our rates, but they never cost them. In reality they’re just regurgitating decades old neoliberal nonsense that, at the end of the day, just hands over public assets to private enterprise operators. Our holiday park, something that is central to […]
Continue ReadingSource Author – Jack Karetai-Barrett Māori wards in New Zealand have been a big topic in local government, especially when it comes to fair representation and Te Tiriti obligations. These wards give Māori a dedicated voice in decision-making, similar to Māori electorates in Parliament. But their introduction has been controversial, with laws changing back and […]
Continue ReadingSource Yes, it’s flat, but there’s another crucial reason why so many Christchurch residents ride – the city’s extensive network of cycle lanes. Simon Kingham’s 9km commute, from Beckenham in south Christchurch to the University of Canterbury west of the CBD, is mostly on cycle lanes. “It’s only the first 400 metres on the road, […]
Continue ReadingSource Here’s a classic example of Wellington telling local councils what to do but not funding it. Auckland ratepayers will have to fund $4 million because of the National led coalition government’s deal with the minority ACT Party to remove Safer Speeds from around schools. With rates rises reaching eye watering levels as a result […]
Continue ReadingThere are a few big reasons I want to be involved in the local body election campaign, and I haven’t looked past the campaign itself really. There’s so much silly talk being talked, especially in Whakatane with the kind of nonsense being floated. I’ll go into those in greater detail as the campaign proper heats […]
Continue ReadingSource It’s time for councils to have a respectful and mature conversation with central government about underfunding and undermining local democracy. Expect a call, Minister. New Local Government Minister Simon Watts. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro New Local Government minister Simon Watts announced to councils across the country today to speak up if they are struggling or […]
Continue ReadingSource Simeon Brown Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The new government’s Transport Minister has pulled the brakes on dozens of council projects designed to encourage cycling, walking and use of public transport across the country, sparking confusion in local authority ranks and fury amongst cycling advocates. In a letter to local authorities Simeon Brown said he told […]
Continue ReadingThere are a few loud and vocal supporters of the National led coalition government’s plan to demolish local democracy and run our town from Wellington. The Whakatane Action Group (WAG) is one of the loudest voices in support of Wellington versus Whakatane. In today’s Beacon there is a very good example of the kind of […]
Continue ReadingFri, Jan 24, 2025 5:20 AM Someone’s got to sort this mess out – council candidate Standing up: Dave Stewart plans to throw his hat in the ring for a seat on Whakatāne District Council at this year’s local government elections. Photo Troy Baker E5208-13 Diane McCarthy Whakatāne District Council candidate Dave Stewart promises, if […]
Continue ReadingIf you haven’t liked or followed my political page which is where I am running a local body election campaign in Whakatane, you’re missing the fun, and the facts. Rates are unaffordable, but the real reason is being fudged over by friends of the government. Central government makes demands on councils that causes huge costs […]
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I know a small number of people would love an autocratic mayor, but to those people I simply ask this question – what if that mayor was me?
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I took the liberty of asking to see the minutes of the meeting where the master plan was approved and found that, along with a new toilet, we are getting new lights, improved pedestrian access, better facilities for disabled ratepayers, more cohesion with the RSA next door for our memorial services, lighting and improved ability to run night-time community events and a host of other enrichments which, as is now customary, were left out of the rants by the negativity brigade.
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The Sunday Market organisers have always had a strong community-minded focus and offer stall spaces free to community groups such as Waste Zero Whakatāne, school fundraising groups and political parties before elections. It is also a prime spot for us as a community board and for Whakatāne District Council to have engagement with the public on various topical issues, such as the long-term plan. As a community board we would like to take this opportunity to support the organisers of the Sunday Market and acknowledge how much mahi goes on behind the scenes to make it happen every week.
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WHEN anyone disagrees with WAG, there’s a pile on in the Beacon letters until they give up and shut up. I’m thankful that Dave Stewart has not been bullied into silence as well. There’s more than a few of us who are also sick of WAG’s constant grumbling, negativity and disinformation, and who are pleased to see his comments published in the Beacon.
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My concerns about WAG’s negativity is that it risks hiding the costs and outcomes that are the alternatives, as we discovered after the post-election euphoria of the cancellation of the previous government’s water reforms – a $440,000,000 ratepayer bill. This concerns the risk of the support WAG have given to central Government’s attacks on local democracy under the banner of “local government reform” without knowing what it will look like. We only need to ask the good folk of Dunedin with the huge protests over the hospital cancellation or Wairarapa, with the eye watering hike in user pays road tolls, to see how badly that can turn out.
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I am disappointed but not surprised that WAG does not see itself as having to offer alternatives to the programmes they criticise because, as we all know, criticising someone or something is easy. Alternatives are harder. And we do all acknowledge that there is a lot the council could do better. As my opinion piece pointed out, banging on about something you don’t like without clearly laying out the alternative has led us to face a $440,000,000 bill as the alternative to the old Three Waters legislation. I thank WAG for owning their support for this alternative.
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Whakatane Action Group are using rhetoric that suits their argument but is at odds with the truth. This is becoming a concerning habit, especially around a democratic process.
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