The grasping hands of privateers endorse proposals to privatise OUR assets.

Here we go again! Councils undertake massive tasks, with consequent unsustainable debt, and some Mayors and Councillors reach for the public’s assets to help fill the void, and get themselves off the hook.

Meantime, on the sideline, salivating, are commercial interests wanting to take over great assets for long term, certain, major income flow.

Currently our Mayor and some Councillors are floating the thought that the vital Ports should be privatised. On 20th June, (NZ Herald, B5) Auckland Chamber of Commerce boss, Michael Barnett suggests adding Watercare to the privatisation list.

Added to that are the hoary old themes put forward by the self-interested ‘Infrastructure NZ’ organisation which purports to give a number of ‘virtues’ for selling Watercare Ltd.

What is both revealing and encouraging, is that in an article in the National Business Review (16.6.17), Tim Hunter dissects the ‘I N Z’ report, finds numerous errors in the report and in fact, pours scorn on it! Well done Tim and NBR!

Watercare and the Port are two of the region’s most valuable and important public assets, which must be kept in the control of the public, to whom they belong.

Water is an absolute essential of life, increasingly valuable and likely to suffer profit gouging by private companies, as demonstrated in many countries, including UK and France.

Mr Barnett feeds Council facile arguments about how to make the sales acceptable to the public, enlisting comments of the Prime Minister, and stating “Council would get a good price,” among other things, ignoring significant income that would be permanently lost to Council and ratepayers.

The Mayor and Council, Infrastructure NZ, and Mr Barnett, do not have a credible case for selling these valuable and essential public assets. Nor do any of them, (especially our elected representatives) have a mandate to sell our assets!

[This is an epanded version of a letter previously published in the North Shore Times.]

Posted on by Tony Holman

Proposals to sell Major Auckland Public Assets

22.6.17

Editor,North Shore Times (Published in NST, 29.6.17)

Letter to the Editor: Proposals to Privatise our major assets.

Here we go again! Councils undertake massive tasks, with consequent unsustainable debt, and some Mayors and Councillors reach for the public’s assets to help fill the void, and get themselves off the hook.

Meantime, on the sideline, salivating, are commercial interests wanting to take over great assets for long term, certain, major income flow.

Currently our Mayor and some Councillors are floating the thought that the vital Ports should be privatised. On 20th June, (NZ Herald, B5) Auckland Chamber of Commerce boss, Michael Barnett suggests adding Watercare to the privatisation list.

These are two of the region’s most valuable and important public assets, which must be kept in the control of the public, to whom they belong.

Water is an absolute essential of life, increasingly valuable and likely to suffer profit gouging by private companies, as demonstrated in many countries, including UK and France.

Mr Barnett feeds Council facile arguments about how to make the sales acceptable to the public, enlisting comments of the Prime Minister, and stating “Council would get a good price,” among other things, ignoring significant income that would be permanently lost to Council and ratepayers.

What is revealing and encouraging, is a National Business Review article by Tim Hunter (16.6.17) pouring scorn on a report by Infrastructure NZ, which puts forward a number of shaky claims of the ‘virtues’ of selling Watercare. Hunter further points toa number of important errors in that report.

Neither Infrastructure NZ nor Council have a case for selling these valuable and essential public assets.

Posted on by Tony Holman

The perils of High-Rise living.

23.6.17

The Editor, NZ Herald, (Not published in the NZH)

Dear Sir, Letter to the Editor: High-Rise living.

Interesting that some officials are now looking busy examining the type of cladding on high-rise buildings. But everyone – elected members of Parliament, Councils and their officials – are all ignoring the central problem of high-rise accommodation.

Except for the luxury pads of the rich and famous, high rise living is essentially anti social and inevitably leads to vertical slums and jungle type, gang dominated situations generally ignored by society at large, which doesn’t need to live in vertical caves – yet. This is the antithesis of the propaganda slogan of making Auckland a “most liveable city.”

I commend to all central and local government politicians and their planners that they read the “perfect storm,” laid out so eloquently by Paul Lochore in the Herald’s issue, 23 June, entitled “Today’s new buildings are a ticking time bomb.”

He is so right, but I guess our politicians and their advisers will come up with the usual platitudes and avoidance measures, including how our regulations, or “self policing” will ensure our wellbeing.

Posted on by Tony Holman

POINT ENGLAND RESERVE. GOVT OVERRIDING THE RESERVES ACT.

Save Our Reserves

Sign the petition to prevent the government from turning our precious reserves into high density housing developments.https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/save-our-reserves

Posted by Save Our Reserves NZ on Wednesday, April 12, 2017

PLEASE WATCH THIS, AND IF YOU OBJECT TO WHAT THE GOVT IS DOING, THEN PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE TO THE PM, CC’D TO MIN. OF CONSERVATION AND TO NICK SMITH.

THANK YOU

Posted on by Tony Holman

Climate – Warning from 1912

Letter to the Editor: Warning from 1912. Published in part by NZH. 13.6.17.

I was recently sent a copy of the Rodney & Otamatea Times, dated 14th August 1912. The front page of that issue had the following ‘science’ report:

“COAL CONSUMPTION AFFECTING CLIMATE.

The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal per year. When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly.

This tends to make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature. The effect may be considerable in a few centuries.”

So here we are one hundred and five years later, still arguing about whether this is true or not! What with coal burning, the huge increase in cars adding to pollution, and despite irrefutable proof that climate is heating, glaciers and ice caps are melting, the oceans are warming and rising, and that scientific evidence agrees with the causes, there are still the naysayers, and totally inadequate action by governments at large, including our own.

Governments have not adopted policies to improve the situation, such as promoting and subsidising ‘green’ economies. Rather, US, Australia, and New Zealand continue promoting coal mining.

So let’s just follow the lemmings.

Posted on by Tony Holman