Revitalising Tauranga City with vision and common sense

It is time to recognise the vision displayed by the self-appointed Civic Amenities Group (CAG), who have recently briefed Tauranga City Council on their vision for our great city. The outcome appears to have been an agreement in principle to collaboratively work towards the betterment of the city. The naysayers will condemn this CAG as affluent men (and women) wanting to exert influence for their own financial gain. I can assure you that this isn’t the case, and we (ratepayers) should applaud this group, who are prepared to give back to a city that they are passionate about. Paul Adams chairs this group, and while he has been exceptionally well rewarded from his hard work and vision as a city developer, he is also a major philanthropic funder of much of the community-based initiatives that are so essential for a thriving and vibrant city.

The Civic Amenities Group’s aspirations include reinvigorating Tauranga City to bring about aspirational change without any form of personal gain. These people do have influence and personal wealth, and rather than knock them, we should all embrace their vision and aspirations. These include the redevelopment of our mould inflicted Civic Centre; the building of a $25m Stadium at the Domain (downtown Tauranga); a privately funded downtown hotel; a downtown arts and cultural centre (incorporating a museum); and linking with the agreed University development, and the High Performance Sports initiative. All of these developments will cost over $170m, but the CAG contends that it is affordable to ratepayers, with the combination of funding initiatives, including private/public partnership funding.

This is a well thought out, realistic proposal, and our local Councillors and ratepayers should embrace the possibilities. This proposal might need refining, but it is a wonderful template to really make a step-change for our beautiful city. Well done CAG – please embrace this now Tauranga.

If you have a view on these or any other local government issues, I invite you to email me at andrew@vond.co.nz

Being elected to Regional Council comes with obligations

I am pretty disappointed with the current performance of our Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Elected members don’t seem to be fully engaged. The number of meetings for Councillors has nearly halved compared with five years ago and this, in itself, is not a bad thing. Councillors are elected (and paid) for their governance skills, and this should not include getting into the engine room of management. However they are meant to insist that management (and the CEO in particular) are accountable to ensure the organisation is run effectively and efficiently.

My beef is that this just isn’t happening, and staff are cruising within a bloated bureaucracy. What is worse is that some Councillors don’t seem to think that they are obligated to attend the few meetings that they are appointed to attend. I went through the minutes of their meetings over the past two years, and noted that while most Councillors had an acceptable record of attendance, one Councillor from our patch was absent from 8 out of the last 15 Full Council meetings; 5 out of 10 Regional Direction & Delivery meetings; and also missed 3 out of the last 6 Public Transport meetings that he was appointed to attend. This isn’t a good look, considering that ratepayers are paying him approximately $60,000 to attend these meetings. Chairman Doug Leeder needs to use his authority to insist on better attendance, as this situation puts all of his elected members in a poor light, and this gentleman, while the worst, is not alone with a poor attendance record.

If you have a view on these or any other local government issues, I invite you to email me at andrew@vond.co.nz

Why the TPPA is a win-win for all New Zealanders

The signing of the TPPA (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) has become more critical to New Zealand, as the meltdown in China’s economic fortunes highlights New Zealand’s need for diversity. This contrasts with the current situation where we are increasingly relying on our $20 billion of trade with China. This regional free trade deal is between 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which includes New Zealand, along with United States, Japan, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada. These countries account for over 40% of world trade, and you can be sure that this is likely to increase New Zealand’s trade by at least US$2 billion annually within the next ten years. This would equate to a 1% increase in New Zealand’s GDP. In short it is substantive.

The nay-sayers complain that the negotiations are secretive, but the reality is that all such trade negotiations are held in secret, but they do have to get ratified by our Parliament before the deal can become operational. The fear mongering by the Left is just plain nonsense. Trade negotiator Hon. Tim Groser will not be signing any agreement that doesn’t benefit New Zealand – of that you can be sure. And to worry that he would sign away New Zealand’s sovereignty is quite ridiculous.

Negotiations for the TPPA began in 2005 and were supposed to be concluded in 2012. This has been and extremely long and protracted negotiation, but hopefully we are almost there.

If you have a view on these or any other local government issues, I invite you to email me at andrew@vond.co.nz