whanganui.org

A dearth of decency

Michael Laws and offensive people I have known

I recently gave the Red Eye Café a swerve because some inconsiderate idiot had parked precisely dead centre between two car parks leaving no space for my little Freelander. I headed for Oggie’s Café instead. On the way I spotted a man pushing a beat up van in the opposite direction to mine. I stopped 100 yards up the road and walked back to lend a hand.

By the time I got to him he’d stopped pushing, but the van was still in the middle of the road. “May I help?” Said I.

He looked at me dead-faced and said “No.”

Nothing more. No thank you, it’s OK, or kiss my backside. Just a flat expressionless “No.”

“You’re welcome.” I said, and walked back up the road to my car. I was not pleased. Perhaps for the first time in human history, the Good Old Days really did have something going for them.

What’s this got to do with Michael Laws?

I’m sure that Michael is not an inconsiderate parker.

Well, I’m almost sure.

But his crusade to sort out the Whanganui DHB may have more chance of working if he gave some thought to the feelings of the other folk who’re trying to do the same. He and Clive Solomon appear to be lacking in the basic skills necessary to make a team work.

His recent confrontational behaviour at board meetings can do nothing to further the aims he espoused which persuaded folk like myself to give him their vote. Whether his views are correct or not, a more reasoned approach to people and problems would be more likely to produce results than the confrontational and aggressive behaviour exhibited recently at board meetings.

See for yourself in this Wanganui Chronicle report.

Makes me wonder whether or not Clive Solomon’s community support is standing on shaky foundations too.

First published in @ My Wits’ End March 12th 2008.

Roman Hasil isn’t the chief guilty party in yet another DHB fiasco

Watching the news media hounding Dr Roman Hasil has been disturbing to me.

Anyone who has experienced depression or lived with a victim would have immediately recognised the outward symptoms.

Watching the way TVNZ’s trusty news team pounced on an obviously distraught Hasil and his female friend in Australia was very disturbing. It wasn’t news reporting, it was akin to ambulance chasing. It was cruel.

The 8 unfortunate women whose lives have been affected by this flawed man’s botched sterilisation operations and problems with the bottle would have gained little comfort from the exercise in persecution. Hasil is as much a victim as they are.

Who is really to blame here?

OK, Dr Hasil is not blameless, but what about:

• the decision makers at Wanganui District Health Board and Wanganui Hospital who failed to carry out the most basic background checks when hiring Dr Hasil. They didn’t even contact his last employer.
• the recruitment company who held back a damning reference from one of two referees (yes, just two) listed in Dr Hasil’s CV.
• the string of employers who failed to address Hasil’s obvious health problems.
• the Medical Council, who could have done more to obtain information from their Australian counterparts.
• the whole unwieldy New Zealand health edifice which has left the Wanganui Hospital so short of medical staff that they find it necessary to cut corners. Too many administrators – not enough doctors and nurses. Overworked staff. A vicious circle of destruction echoed around the country.
• the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons who should have a one stop shop database of information about their members.

Who will pay when the lawyers start on the compensation hunt?

We all know who will pay. It’ll be the long-suffering taxpayers and ratepayers when the District Health Board is sued. It’ll be the patients whose care will suffer because of funds diverted to the battle and staff diverted by the process.

Who should pay?

• The recruitment agency.
• The individuals at the DHB who failed in their duty. Not the organisations to which they belong.

Every time an MP, a Minister, a council, a cop, or a raft of other perpetrators does something stupid which results in litigation the taxpayer pays the costs and the damages.

It’s time the individuals shouldered the responsibility for their actions. Maybe we could then look forward to a little more care being exercised before decisions are made or libellous statements uttered.

Responsibility

And after all this and various other fiascoes, the DHB Chief Executive, Memo Musa, still has his job.

Curious.

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.

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.

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.

First I decided that Michael had to go. He’s too cocky and obnoxious by far.

Then I had a rethink. He’s certainly got things done. Get rid of a few of his sycophants in the Vision team but put Michael back to stir the pot.

Yeah.

But that nice John Martin seemed to have some great qualities too. High flying international businessman - how does it go? A career in global corporate management - yeah, that’s it.

I was quite impressed. then I heard his mellifluous tones on a radio ad. He’s going to fix up Wonganewey. Wonga what?

You heard it. WongaNEWey. I just hate that pronunciation. I know a lot of old Wanganui folk use it and I can forgive them, even whilst gritting my teeth.

But I won’t have my mayor broadcasting it to the world on the 6 o’clock news. Sorry John, on yer bike.

Anyway, what does that mean - a career in global corporate management - factory manager for Mazda light bulbs? Chairman of Toyota? Postmaster General of Nauru.

Blow me down, I could write a better résumé than that!

Michael, it’s yours by default. Now start being just a tiny bit polite to people. Well, most of them. You can be rude to the Czarina in Helengrad, and George Dubbya Bush. Maybe even the NZRU. but lay off old ladies, shattered All Blacks and chocolate labs.

The Heart of Wanganui

One way or another we’re going to spend a lot of money on this project - even if we stick with the status quo.

We’ve already spent a bundle on architectural reports.

So where has it gone?

Have a look at the council’s very own Heart of Wanganui website created, but not obviously maintained, at your expense. There you will find, among other redundant news:

• A last council report dated August 2006,
• That the “choice will be made by referendum in mid-2007.”
• You’ll see “what happens next?” Err, umm … the timetable for November 2006!

Did I miss something? Has my “No junk mail” sign worked too well?

What’s happening Michael? Is there a Vision?

This is not just a Wanganui problem. It happens all over the country, particularly on our state highways. In come the contractors, they tear up the roads, and at vast expense they lay new surfaces.

A few weeks later the tarmac is pristine not longer. The lovely smooth and expensive surface is full of potholes and ridges.

Travelled along London Street lately? Or Carlton Avenue? It’s a disgrace.

Why does it happen?

Is it because the contract goes to the lowest tender and that there’s no properly agreed performance standards or penalty clauses for substandard performance?

The engineers in charge are highly paid, highly educated, and certified. Why can’t they repair a road?

Is this rocket science or what?

How much of the responsibility lies with Council employees who let the contracts and should be overseeing results?

It’s more than a disgrace. It’s money down a hole, sorry, lots of holes in the ground.

Your money.