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Rana Waitai’s column in last week’s River City Press was interesting reading. Rana has always seemed to me to be a man with his head screwed on and his down-to-earth observations on his new positions in council and the Hospital Board are a sign of hope that my vote for him wasn’t wasted.

I was tempted to say, “Hardly surprising when you consider his background,” but, sadly, a few of his erstwhile senior colleagues in the Police Force give the lie to that assumption.

Rana also wrote about the reduced vote count for Vision candidates in the election which brought him into Council.

There seems to be a feeling about, expressed often and with some vituperation by Rob Vinsen (who never misses an opportunity to put the boot into Vision whether it’s deserved or not), that the Vision team were given a thumping of Rugby World Cup proportions in the election.

Well, the fact is most people seem to have voted the way I did, giving an increased vote for Mayor Michael – despite his propensity for pit bull tactics – and pulling back a bit on Vision.

We had our way for good or ill – as happens with elections. We have “get things done” Bulldozer Laws and we have a Vision team without a majority. but let’s keep things in perspective. The Vision team have only been reduced by one. Hardly a massacre.

Oh dear Trevor, what have you done this time?

Now in theory, there’s no argument. Our great and glorious leaders foisted the family violence legislation on us so that people would stop bashing their babies to death.

That worked, didn’t it?

Yeah, right.

You and I are paying big bikkies for ads on the box telling us that violence isn’t alright. Not ever.

So what do you think folks?

Is Is Rocky Mallard out for the count?

It’s a toughie for the Czarina. How many seasoned campaigners does she have on the front bench? How many lurking on the back benches who have the talents necessary to foot it in debate as well as Trevor?

Not a lot.

Dear me, what a quandary. Honour or expediency?

Helen’s admirable management skills and ruthless leadership will be sorely tested. If she lets him off with the wet bus ticket treatment will enough voters forget?

Probably.

So what next?

My guess is a stern talking to, demotion to twentyish in the cabinet rankings, and full redemption after the next election. Which, as Helen well knows, is far from lost.

But let’s not lose sight of what happened here. A senior cabinet minister indulged in a premeditated brawl. He didn’t invite the far from blameless Tau Henare outside to show him his stamp collection.

A person with the standards of integrity we should expect from our elected representatives should have had his resignation on Helen’s desk the nest morning.

A resignation tendered with bags packed, not a Clayton’s resignation offered tongue-in-cheek with a wink and a nudge.

Originally posted this morning in new zealand matters.

You never had it so good – well, not quite

During the current government’s regime the average earner may be earning a couple of hundred dollars a week more, but take home pay adjusted for inflation has only risen by $10 a week.

The dreaded “bracket creep” is to blame.

Labour says it just shows how important it is to keep inflation under control.

Yeah, right. If the inflation hadn’t had occurred you wouldn’t have got the pay rise and anyway as I stated above the figure is adjusted for inflation.

Welfare state to the rescue

There’s an exception. If the earner has children, the income redistributing Working for Families package will compensate – at the expense of those who don’t have kids and by turning most of the population into welfare beneficiaries.

If you didn’t know before where Michael Cullen’s whopping great surpluses come from, you do now.

Originally posted in new zealand matters. Seems relevant to us in Wanganui too.

The only thing that’s common about common sense is just how uncommon it is. Time for more introspection and less tantrums.

Stick a wedge in the guillotine

When the All Blacks were sent packing in the Rugby World Cup semifinals there was, as usual and as expected, much wailing and gnashing of teeth in New Zealand. The Third World War would have been heralded with less despondency and harping criticism.

Again, it was predictable that heads would be called upon to fall into the tumbrels. The madding crowd howled for the blood of the coach, the captain, the administration, Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.

No surprise if you’re a Kiwi.

Well hang on a minute mate! There’s a story, maybe apocryphal, maybe not, which goes something like this (stop me if you’ve heard it):

The hotshot Wall Street trader stuck his neck out too far and lost his company megabucks.

Sometime later when, much to his surprise and wonderment, he still had his job, his boss was asked, “Why didn’t you fire the idiot?”.

“Gimme a break,” says the boss, “the lesson he learned that day cost us 200 million bucks, why on earth would I fire him?”

Exactly.

We did it with John Hart, who said something along the lines of “You can’t get on the field and play the blessed game for them.” We did it with John Mitchell, whose main crime was being given the job too soon.

Enough’s enough. Don’t fire anybody. Graham Henry is a great coach. He’s built up a great team. Things didn’t pan out as the supporters would have liked. Swallow hard and get a grip.

Beg him to keep the job. He’s probably the best rugby coach in the world and he’ll only improve.

I do hope he strikes those words rotation and resting from his lexicon.

Just kidding Graham – you’re the boss.

Annette Main, not satisfied with a resounding victory in the race for Wanganui representatives on the Horizons Regional Council, has weighed into the distant second runner. See her comment below.

I understand your pain Ms Main, but this is what’s known as democracy. Perhaps you might have waited until the dust settled before summarily executing Mr Walker. It’s hardly a foundation for a working relationship to attack the man before the ink is dry on the voting papers.

There are people in Wanganui who feel that Horizons has exceeded its mandate on occasion and that they need to be reigned in.

That may be why Bob came in at #2 rather than trailing the field – not bad for someone with the severe handicap of being a known real estate agent.

If you wish to convert him to the cause, you’ve hardly started off on the right foot.

Ms Main thinks that Bob is entitled to his views about excessive rating and spending by the regional body but questions their veracity. Well, Annette, I hardly think you’ve chosen the best method of moderating Bob’s views.

Or mine.

“I would really have liked to be working along someone really positive,”

“I think this result is unfortunate for Wanganui. We needed two positive people there, people who wanted to see the best outcomes for Wanganui at that table.” Ms Main said, with apparently unconscious irony.

“It’s really sad I have to sit alongside someone who has made it clear he will be working against the council.

“It’s disappointing for me to have another Wanganui candidate who is negative about the role of the regional council. I would have far preferred to have seen someone there who I could have worked with.

“He’s talked up the figure of rate rises of 39 percent or something like that. But 39 percent of what? You’d need to have facts about how much people are paying on their Horizons rates and it’s certainly not the feedback I’m getting from people.

“I’m not getting people telling me they unhappy with what Horizons is spending.

“My Wanganui District Council rates have gone up 18 percent in the last three years and that’s a huge amount of money. But I’m not complaining about that because I know there is work to be done,”

Congratulations to the successful candidates

And a big thank you to all of those who had the gumption and the stamina to stand as candidates for the thankless task of local body politician.

Results are listed here on the council’s website.

I didn’t get my own way entirely, but the preliminary results seem to be a victory for common sense. Mayor Michael, for all his acidity, has been a good leader (well… with occasional lapses). His Vision team don’t have an outright majority, so won’t be able to steamroll legislation at whim.

Those hard working independent folk like Barbara Bullock and Randhir Dahya have been rewarded and that’s a good thing.

Can we expect a gentler kinder Mayor Laws?

John Banks reckons he can do it. If Banksie can, anyone can.

Now a referendum to divorce ourselves from Horizons would be nice. How about it Your Worship?

And you voters

If your voting could really change things, it would be illegal.

Those of you who didn’t read Len Goldsack’s letter published in yesterday’s Chronicle about Norm Kirk’s super scheme may wish to read my post (click here) on my blog New Zealand Matters.

I don’t find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Len very often – in my opinion his left bias is a little extreme. On this occasion he’s spot on.

Because, collectively, we were sucked in by electioneering subterfuge, dissembling and outright lies we threw out the family silver.

Nothing beats being an informed voter.

As I write, you have 5 hours left to get down to the Council Building in Guyton Street and cast your vote.

Have your say in running our town.

There’s been much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the alleged drop off in voter numbers in the local body elections.

Well, apart from the fact that we won’t know that it’s so until Saturday afternoon, so what? Is it a big surprise?

The very media who bemoan this situation are themselves partly to blame.

How much do the potential voters know about these people for whom we’re urged to vote? All we know about them is what we’ve gleaned about the sitting members during their tenure - which, apart perhaps from the mayors, usually isn’t much.

As for the newbies, we have potted biographies, written by the candidates themselves, purveyed to us (at our expense) in council flyers and local rag advertising and printed without question by the newspapers.

Come on journalists. What about getting off your backsides and finding out about these people? Interview them, check their claims, talk to people who know them. Dig up the dirt <em>and </em>the gold nuggets.

Otherwise it’s the same old game of tick the boxes of the most familiar names or those nearest the top of the list.

It’s well known that the nearer your surname comes to the first letter of the alphabet, the more chance you have of being elected.

The unbiased message isn’t getting out.

Whose job is it to ensure that it does?

I know the Wanganui Chronicle have been inviting letters asking questions of candidates and printing the replies - good job - but it’s not enough.

I’m hoping that this blog will be supported so that we may generate a little dialogue over the next 3 years and really stir the pot before the next election. I need your help for that.

Wanganui Gas have generously decided to fund the gas flares that will stop you from falling off the boardwalk after too many pinot noirs at your favourite downtown watering hole.

Who are they kidding? That gas isn’t free. Somebody’s paying.

If you’re a Wanganui Gas consumer would you care to guess who?

Then again, maybe they’ve been reading about this on my other blog:

Forget climate change. The Arabs can keep their oil. We can run everything on salt water.

Don’t believe me? You can see it for yourself right here .

Salt water burning. Not just burning, but powering an engine. There’s the picture »

All our troubles are over, right?

The inventor, John Kanzius, splits the molecules of water into oxygen and hydrogen and burns the hydrogen. Seems like a nice man too.

Hang on a minute, isn’t there a catch?

Well, now that you ask, yes.

It’s all been done before, albeit in a different way. In the breathless news reports nobody thinks to ask, “How much energy goes into the RF generator which initiates this miraculous process?”

There’s the small matter of the Laws of Thermodynamics which our fearless journos don’t seem to know about. Wouldn’t it be nice if journalists and TV presenters were educated and knowledgeable people.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Then again, I may be wrong. Wouldn’t that be nice?