Two correspondents are hoping Gisborne District Council will heed the call from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last week for councils to cut wasteful spending and get back to delivering the basics.
OPINION
Hope PM’s message is heeded here
Our Prime Minister Christopher Luxon delivered an excellent speech to Local Government New Zealand last week - a breath of fresh air for the much-beleaguered ratepayers of this district.
The message was plain and simple: ‘Get back to basics!’
Apparently it is very difficult for Gisborne District Council to hear this message, repeated many times by those who put in submissions to council in May of this year.
Cycleways and parks that overflow on to streets are far more important it seems than fixing potholes, fixing the street lights, and stopping sewage flows into our rivers.
Councillors will be facing local elections again next year and ratepayers will be able to express their opinions on whether or not rates increases represent value for money, or should have been spent on the basics.
Mr Luxon’s speech was also directed at council staff members, especially those responsible for increasing the spend on “fantasies”. The message to them was also clear: ‘reduce the spend - concentrate on basics’.
Let’s hope the council’s heads of departments hear this clearly!
Linda Francis
Silly stuff vs core business
The council is deeply unpopular - mainly, but definitely not solely, due to the cartoonish new version of Grey Street and the Gisborne District Council’s thumbing of its nose at all the fully justified criticism.
Its fantasies (a bridge to nowhere is another) are exactly what Christopher Luxon had in mind when criticising councils for squandering rates on silly stuff while letting core business languish.
All the discontent must be penetrating the fog at council HQ - we’ve had an expensive campaign ‘our people are people too’ in response to verbal and physical attacks on council staff. Now the lovely little perk of council vehicles being taken home in the evening is being reined in to prevent them being vandalised out in the suburbs.
Lose the ‘let them eat cake’ attitude, councillors and mayor, or you’ll be deservedly sacked next election.
E. Matthews
Get that $40m back
Ian Miller demeans his honourable profession (TGH Aug15) when he publicly accuses me of misrepresentation and misinformation. For his information I served as a trust lawyer in government and private practice and worked for and with members, including life members, of his society. Respect, and I warn you, kia tūpato.
Further, let us remember we are talking about $40 million of community trust money, as noted by respected local identity and former partner at Nolans, who were solicitors to TT, Gordon Webb (TGH Aug14).
That’s $40m out of the pockets of local electricity consumers.
Concerning TT’s kaiwhakahaere Doug Jones’ claim (TGH Aug15) that ECNT is a beneficiary because it “is a customer” of our former electricity network, I suggest he look at ECNT’s audited accounts recently filed with the government’s online Charitable Services public records. I table the relevant section here:
Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $40,097,000; receivables and recoverables $11,367,000; inventory nil; other current assets nil; total current assets $51,464,000.
Non-current assets: Property, plant and equipment nil; intangible assets nil; investments nil; total assets $51,464,000.
Liabilities: Total current liabilities $9,336,000; total non-current liabilities nil; total liabilities $9,336,000.
Total assets less total liabilities: $42,128,000.
Net assets/equity - capital contributed by owners* $40,000,000.
Accumulated comprehensive revenue and expense: $2,128,000.
Reserves: nil
Minority interest: nil
Total equity: $42,128,000.
No mention of any power bill expense - and what would ECNT use power for?
*Capital contributed by “owners”? That can only be TT.
Plus no beneficiary of TT, other than GDC, may be legally paid any capital moneys, let alone $40m.
Finally, and I know the auditor Deloitte will understand this, a charitable trust loses that status if it is deemed to be “controlled”. ENCT is totally controlled by TT. TT determines the amounts available to ENCT and, almost unbelievably, the trustees of both trusts are identical - the same people making distributions to benefit the other. These are not companies they are trusts.
Mr Editor, ENCT is a bogus charity and I say to the trustees of TT again, get that $40m back and pay it to the proper beneficiaries.
Winston Moreton, Notary Public and TT beneficiary
Footnote response from Trust Tairāwhiti chief executive Doug Jones: Eastland Network Charitable Trust is a validly established charitable trust which has served the interests of the Tairāwhiti community for over 20 years. It is a beneficiary of Trust Tairāwhiti for the reason previously stated, is a valid recipient of grants from Trust Tairāwhiti and remains an important part of the means by which Trust Tairāwhiti carries out its objectives of community advancement.
Accelerating restrictions
Not a new topic but one which underlines the plight of Western society today is the ongoing and accelerating restrictions on freedoms of speech and thought. Balance and honesty are forbidden in today’s media landscape. Expressing the truth is frowned upon at best. At worst, careers are ruined.
Perhaps the worst aspect of this blight occurs at universities. Once hubs of freedom of thought and innovation, they are now producing indoctrinated students. These are the leaders of tomorrow, being programmed to deliver a narrow and restrictive future of fear and recrimination.
The New Zealand Initiative recently released research finding university administrators and student activists now see fit to protect students from “hurtful” words and ideas.
The leading researcher summarised this trend: “of course students should be safe from harassment and physical danger, but treating arguments as a hazard will inevitably reduce the scope for intellectual discussion and investigation”.
We are heading into a post-enlightenment era where freedom of speech and ideas will be condemned, and one which future generations and students of today should be very fearful of.
Those who survived the Stasi era during the last century could advise of what is to come.
Iain Boyle
The contentious bill will have its first reading in Parliament this afternoon.