Wayne Brown's rhetoric of being 'ruled from Whangarei' etc is overblown and dangerously phobic. We are not divided or missing out by centering a regional organisation in Whangarei. Kaitaia has an excellent user-friendly regional council office with helpful staff. Peter Wiessing especially deserves credit for his practical contribution to our northern communities.
And of course it is sensible to build major infrastructure at Ruakaka with nearby port and arterial routes etc. Does Wayne Brown seriously think Mangonui or Kaikohe, or perhaps Houhora, would be better sites?
Wayne Brown is a dinosaur politician with a smokestack industrial philosophy for job creation that belongs in the last century.
His admission to representing mining interests, almost as much, it seems, as the FNDC, is an obvious conflict of interest. His glib use of 'best practice' rhetoric to deny the certainty of heavy metal leakage into our rivers from toxic tailing dams is standard industry-speak.
How Wayne Brown kept his job after the Attorney-General report caught his self-interest out red-handed is a disgrace that must be sheeted back to a lap dog set of councillors ...
The push for a unitary authority is plainly an asset power grab. It is easy to shoulder-tap the old boys' network and quote support from many and varied groups. Our business, for instance, is a member of Doubtless Bay Promotion Inc, a local business grouping, the hierarchy of which may have supported a unitary authority. But did they consult their members?
As for Wayne Brown's constant reference to an iwi leaders' group, which is the only way I've heard of it, perhaps, with due respect Rangitane Marsden or others could inform us of their scope and authenticity.
American President Obama recently talked of doing politics without name-calling. In contrast, Wayne Brown specialises in character assassination. With his latest effort he calls his critics 'people who oppose everything ... and collectively employ no one.' My business efforts over the past 20 years have in fact created jobs in the Far North.
Statistically, small business is the biggest employer in New Zealand. We do not have to prostitute our environment to foreign mining companies to create jobs.
Obama's comment was a reference to co-operative bi-partisan politics. Working collaboratively. Leadership comes in many forms. There are many genuine people in the Far North making powerful contributions to their iwi and communities.
Then there are the letter-writers. People like Derek Ellis, Zelka Grammer, Ian Burke, Des Mahoney, Alec Morgan, Rueben Porter, Ross Forbes and others who collectively help to balance political discourse in our region. I appreciate their efforts and the Northland Age for that opportunity. Their contributions are important.
The National government is hell-bent on selling off our public assets. Stephen Joyce, Minister of Everything, has also changed the law to help facilitate the transfer of regional council assets. I will be writing to him to tell him that contrary to all the spin, a unitary authority does not have popular backing in the Far North, and that at the very least a democratic referendum must be held.
I hope other concerned residents find the time to do so as well.
WAYNE PARSONSON
Honeymoon Valley
