Safe Tairāwhiti « Caddie in Council 2010-2013

Time to Stop the Testing

25 04 2011

One of 500 dead penguins that washed up within a few days on a beach near Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2010. Oil exploration is common in the coastal areas around Sao Paulo.

MEDIA RELEASE

25/04/2011

A Gisborne District Councillor is demanding a moratorium on seismic testing following revelations that scores of dead penguins are washing up on East Cape beaches and new international research suggests seismic testing is responsible for killing a range of sea creatures.

Manu Caddie said residents at Waihau Bay near East Cape found a dozen dead penguins yesterday within a 200 metre stretch of coastline and they would have found more if they kept walking. More carcasses were found around the coastline as far as East Cape by locals who say they have never seen so many dead birds washed ashore. “While the government may blame La Nina weather conditions for starving the penguins or suggest a storm killed them, locals haven’t noticed any major storm recently.”

“Evidence is piling up on the impact of the seismic tests both here and abroad” said Mr Caddie, who as a member of the Environment & Policy Committee of Gisborne District Council argued that seismic testing should not be considered a permitted activity in the Gisborne District given the potential harm it can cause to sea life.

“While the District Council is only responsible for the marine coastal environment out to the 12 nautical mile limit, we have a responsibility to protect that environment from the effects of activities that may occur beyond 12 miles. We also have a responsibility as stewards of the region and community leaders to advocate when central government has made a mistake.”

Mr Caddie cited recently published research from researchers at the Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona that found the deaths of giant squid, washed up on Spanish beaches in 2001 and 2003, were caused by nearby oil and gas seismic surveys.

Environment and Conservation Organisations (ECO) of New Zealand said Spanish research into mass deaths of squid, cuttlefish and octopus showed organ damage in these creatures after just two hours exposure to low frequency noise from 50-400 hertz, or “acoustic smog”, due to oil and gas exploration and shipping.

“The scientists found that the organ that allows squid, octopus and cuttlefish to regulate their positions to balance and direct how and where they swim was damaged leaving the animals unable to move or to feed and vulnerable to predators,” ECO co-chair Barry Weeber said.

Mr Caddie said the activity of the Orient Explorer survey ship is putting all sea life is at risk with sonic booms from sonar gun arrays of up to 259dB firing into the sea floor. “Even the United States has stricter regulations on this activity than the New Zealand government. There is a federal register where the public have an opportunity to assess the proposed seismic testing activity. The applicant has to detail every piece of equipment to be used, with comprehensive information on the acoustic source specifications, the level of activity being undertaken and the estimated impacts on the marine environment.

Mr Caddie said the level of government hypocrisy was reaching new heights given the pressure New Zealand put on Russia last year to stop oil and gas companies using seismic testing in whale migration and breeding areas. “DOC guidelines specifically identify from now until October as the time of year most likely to have negative impacts on whales as they migrate.

Studies published last year by researchers from Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the University of Zurich suggest seismic testing has a significant impact on whales, which rely on acoustic signalling for communication, orientation, locating prey and predators:

The sounds from marine exploration surveys are one of several anthropogenic noise sources that have been identified as eliciting behavioural reactions in marine mammals. Seismic surveys rely on systems that produce impulsive, high intensity sounds (190–250 dB re 1 µPa, peak to peak), with most energy below 200 Hz. The peak frequencies of these sounds overlap the acoustic signals and estimated hearing ranges of baleen whales. Such acoustic interference could reduce a whale’s ability to detect biologically relevant signals. With the increase in oil and gas prospecting surveys into deeper waters, there is sparse knowledge on the acoustic responses of baleen whales to sounds from seismic exploration.

Our results clearly show that blue whales change their calling behaviour in response to a low-medium power technology that is presumed to have minor environmental impact. Reducing an individual’s ability to detect socially relevant signals could therefore affect biologically important processes. This study suggests careful reconsideration of the potential behavioural impacts of even low source level seismic survey sounds on large whales.”

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Healthy Tairāwhiti, Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Regional Economy, Regional Environment, Safe Tairāwhiti, Sustainable Tairāwhiti

Bring it on!

22 04 2011

As pressure grows on the Government and the industry to justify their cavalier approach to deep sea petroleum exploration they cannot seem to provide any assurances. This is encouraging as it means it will be only a matter of time before the threat of losing an election over their indefensible position will mean both major parties support a ban on deep sea exploration and extraction.

The main claims the politicians and lobbyists are clinging on to now seem to be: (a) the economic potential outweighs the risks; (b) adequate regulations will be in place before any drilling commences; and (c) any environmental or economic risks associated with their activities are born entirely by the mining companies and their insurers.

Let’s look at those claims…

Economic Potential: By investing so much political and financial capital in backing big oil, the Government denies New Zealand the prosperity that would come from such investment being made in home grown clean technology. We could be world leaders in this sector but instead their plan locks us into a dangerous and polluting energy future. A more energy independent nation would make us less exposed to oil and gas price shocks. In 2009 Price Waterhouse Coopers estimated our clean technology market could be worth between 7.5 to 22 billion, representing up to 17% of the economy, while oil and gas royalties that year earned only $965m. And while the East Coast wears the risk of another oil disaster, the industry acknowledges that no jobs on the rigs are likely to go to locals. So without even taking into account the massive, potentially criminal, risk our district is being exposed to by deep sea exploration, the numbers by themselves don’t stack up.
Adequate Regulation: No amount of regulation short of banning deep sea exploration will provide proper protection against another disaster. The US agency responsible for regulating deep sea exploration says it will be many years before they can establish a regime that will even minimise (let alone one that could eliminate) risks to the environment and workers. Regulators acknowledge it is a complex, highly technical and inherently risky activity they are charged with overseeing. After all the investigations and regulation strengthening, Petrobras was the first company permitted to resume deep water extraction and almost caused a second disaster last month, a riser broke away from the seabed and it would have started leaking oil if it happened a few days later. Rig inspection is obviously inadequate protection from a large earthquake or simple equipment failure as happened last month for Petrobras. The national ‘oil spill preparedness’ plan consists largely of three small vessels that are limited to inshore responses, the Gulf disaster required hundreds of vessels and we are much more isolated.
User Pays for Accident: BP lost over US$100 million in value following the Deepwater Horizon accident. There is a real risk that such an event could bankrupt Petrobras and while insurers may struggle cover the financial cost of any cleanup, no money could pay for the environmental, social and cultural damage inflicted, and little, if any, compensation would be paid for the economic impact on fishing, tourism and other sectors. The containment system eventually used for the Deepwater Horizon well cannot be deployed beyond 2,500 metres and the Raukumara Basin goes beyond 3,000 metres in many places. The blowout preventers in use today remain incapable of handling a well rupture of the force of the BP blast. The containment system developed by the industry to respond to another blowout has not been tested in real-life conditions and, by the industry’s own estimate, could still allow hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to spew before a runaway well could be capped. Hekia Parata admitted under questioning from Green party members in Parliament that there are no assessments of environmental effects or risks contained in the permit and the safety record of Petrobras was never looked at by officials prior to granting the permit.

The corporate PR advisors (what the industry calls ‘communications counsellors’) are obviously being paid too much if that is all they’ve got!

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Safe Tairāwhiti

Reality check…

7 04 2011

Whangaparāoa SH35

Opinion Piece: 7 April 2011

- – - – -

The Gisborne Herald Editorial on 4 April needs a reality check.

Petrobras is not a good operator, they have been responsible and roundly criticised for numerous environmental disasters and human deaths in Brazil and further afield. They are a world leader in deep water drilling, which is increasingly desperate and dangerous given the scarcity of easy oil.

Just two weeks ago Petrobras was involved in a major incident in the Gulf of Mexico. Eight days after US regulators allowed Petrobras to start deep sea extraction one of the 8000-foot long production risers fell to the sea floor after the chain connecting it to its 130 ton buoyancy can failed. There are no reports of any hydrocarbon release at this stage, however Petrobras has not yet commented on the incident. So Petrobras have had a major incident before they even start the job!

Natural gas is not a ‘clean-burning fuel’, according to the US Energy Information Administration, worldwide the burning of natural gas (which is mostly methane) produces nearly 5 billion tons of CO2 each year, which is just behind oil and coal emissions.

The Petrobras permit is not just for gas, it includes oil as well. Hekia Parata’s spin is that it is now a ‘research’ permit – that ‘research’ requires the company to drill an exploratory well unless they run away from Cape Runaway at one of the two permit surrender milestones.

Petrobras has confirmed it will be based out of the Port of Tauranga, and talking to Coasties who have worked on rigs overseas and don’t want one here, I can’t see how it will create a single job for the Gisborne district.

Major gas finds are not going to lead to cheaper electricity in New Zealand. Any petroleum extracted would no longer be New Zealand owned, the government has very clearly said it would be taken by the multinationals to sell on the international market (or possibly taken back to Brazil in the case of Petrobras).

There are no effective ‘environmental protections’ for deep sea petroleum extraction, the new practice is experimental at best and the only way to guarantee a disaster does not happen is to not let them drill. As we have seen in the Gulf last week, where the review and strengthening of regulations has been second to none, deep sea drilling is simply too unpredictable. The Raukumara Basin has an average of three tremors per day and regularly has earthquakes over 5 on the Rhicter scale, it is twice as deep as the Deepwater Horizon well that blew out last year and Taranaki wells are in only 100-150m of water so they are no way comparable.

I’m not sure what the Editor bases his claim on that ‘a majority of New Zealanders hope Petrobras strike a major gas field of East Cape’. In a poll of over 12,000 people this week only 12% said they thought fossil fuels should be a government priority for our energy future.

New Zealand certainly has become a frontier for new exploration, and a frontier in the struggle of communities that rely on their local environment for survival against corporations who rely on exploiting anything they can for their survival. The wellbeing of our district should not be put on the auction block in the interests of foreign corporations.

- – - -

GH Editorial reply 7/4/11: http://gisborneherald.co.nz/opinion/editorial/?id=22178

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Empowered Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Regional Economy, Safe Tairāwhiti, Sustainable Tairāwhiti, Tangata Whenua

Local Govt Transport Congress 2011

29 03 2011

In early February I attended the Local Government NZ Transport Congress, it was designed to determine local government transport priorities over the next three years. There were a number of interesting presentations (see three below) – Martin Mathews (CEO, Ministry of Transport) had a particularly interesting presentation focusing on upcoming challenges including peak oil and rapidly rising fuel costs, climate change and new technology – he said it was a ‘no brainer’ that these realities need to be factored into future transport planning scenarios.

The outcome of it all was LGNZ President Lawrence Yule took some leadership and decided LGNZ would establish a working group to refine LGNZ positions based on feedback coming out of the Congress. There was a strong focus on sustainable transport funding and maintenance over new build, also surprisingly for nearly all participants there was acknowledgement that in the face of rising fuel costs and reducing central government support for roading, communities might need to change their expectations and there was little call for more money and rather a focus on how to spend what is available better. There were still tensions between metro authorities focus on public transport and things like cycleways – and provincial councils focus on rural road maintenance but the divisions were apparently no where near as stark as they have been in the past. Rural councils were accepting that not every back road is going to get sealed and metro councils agreed there needed to be ongoing support for local roads that contribute a lot of value to the national economy. There was strong opposition to the Minister’s prioritising so called ‘Roads of National Significance’.

The March 2011 Quarterly Review (QR) put out by LGNZ, page 6 has a synopsis of the outcome of the Transport Congress.

Seems to a few of us who have been in touch since the Congress we helped to get some important points agreed especially the following:

- advocate for a transport network which is resilient against natural disasters, oil and energy constraints, economic impacts and societal changes;

- facilitate the development of an enduring transport ‘vision’ which has community and multi-partisan support and drives future investment choices;

These both appear to be things that regional and local authorities who care about the environment and communities need to be active in pushing because otherwise we may get things like the following outcome (which was also agreed at the forum) taking priority: ‘work to ensure transport investment matches the real needs of the economy and takes external influences into account’ (note it says economy rather than society).

The other aspect that concerns me is that there was no explicit mention, in the agreed outcomes, of land use planning being integrated with transport planning, despite it being identified at the forum.

I look forward to seeing how they come up with the working group to progress these priorities.

PRESENTATIONS:

Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Connected Tairāwhiti, Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Regional Infrastructure, Safe Tairāwhiti, Sustainable Tairāwhiti

Increasing Equality

24 03 2011

The Spirit Level has some exciting implications for the Gisborne District. No surprises that in our community wealth and health inequalities are more pronounced than most other places around New Zealand. Also not surprisingly, inequalities here are largely, though not exclusively, aligned with ethnicity (Europeans/Pākeha control nearly 93% of the national net worth but only comprise 83% of the population, while Māori make up over 10% but only own 4% of the wealth) and age (young people have much higher ratio of debt to assets than older people), and to a lesser extent gender.

While the factors contributing to this situation are largely historical and circumstantial, there are things that can be done today to create a more equal community if that was something we aspired to. The Spirit Level certainly provides strong evidence as to why reducing inequalities is an important goal but there is a fundamental change in values that needs to take place if equality is something we make a community goal for Gisborne.

Massey University published research last year that showed over the past 30 years New Zealanders have drifted away from our egalitarian roots and now more people than ever do not believe equality should be a goal for our society. Commentators have linked this shift with the rise of radical political ideology of free market economics that has dominated New Zealand government policy since the mid-1980s. So now we have a more unequal society where 10% of the population own more than half of the wealth, more half the population own less than 7% of wealth and a steady trend is that a decreasing proportion of people own their home. But more importantly, less people than ever think we should be aiming for a reduction in the disparities between the haves and the have nots. As Midnight Oil sang ‘the rich are getting richer, the poor get the picture’. Another trend down is that less and less of the value produced by the country is held by New Zealanders, and a increasing proportion of the population have a decreasing net value. The Treasury technocrats who have pushed what Professor Jane Kelsey dubbed ‘The New Zealand Experiment’ have been very successful in terms of shifting our thinking as a country.

While this ideology has been espoused by some outspoken local civic and business leaders for a generation, it is pleasing to see some of have moved on and a new, hopefully more enlightened set of leaders is emerging.

Tim Jackson’s book “Prosperity Without Growth” and Michael Shuman’s “Going Local” have been influencing my thinking on economic policy and his recommendations for local and national economies are closely aligned with the thesis of The Spirit Level authors.

I am very interested in looking at how Council policies on rating for example has been used over the past ten years in a way that may have the effect of shifting more of the rates burden onto those who can least afford it. I think we should also be looking carefully at how public policies can make it easier or harder for big box retailers owned by foreigners to setup here and effectively shut down our mainstreet’s family-owned businesses.

I think a fair and active democracy requires that we try to give everyone an opportunity to make positive contributions to the community, fairness doesn’t mean we have to treat everyone the same. If people live in different circumstances then treating them differently is justified. The level of opposition to the Voter Participation Project focused on neighbourhoods that have poor election turnout was a great case in point. Either opposers have a very base understanding of what it means to be fair or they were motivated by some irrational fear or bias against trying to encourage poor people to vote in an informed manner.

While The Spirit Level has had it’s detractors and critics (largely politically motivated some claim), the authors have responded resoundingly to questions raised and a global movement is developing aimed at raising public and political awareness about the benefits of reducing the gap between the wealthy and poorest citizens within a country and community. The Equality Trust established by the authors of The Spirit Level has a guide for local groups and I would be keen to hear from anyone interested in forming a Gisborne group to look more closely at the current situation on things like wage ratios in local businesses and implications for Council policy positions that do or not include increasing equality as a goal.

Wilkinson and Pickett, The Spirit Level authors, have clearly demonstrated through peer-reviewed empirical evidence that the more equal a society is, the happier, healthier and less stressed, better educated and less likely to be a victim of crime everyone is. I’m as keen as anyone else to get beyond the ‘them’ and ‘us’ mentality that has grown with the increasing gap between rich and poor, can we find others who want to explore these opportunities?

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Community Outcomes, Connected Tairāwhiti, Educated Tairāwhiti, Empowered Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Regional Economy, Safe Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Sustainable Tairāwhiti, Vibrant Tairāwhiti

Neighbours Day Everyday…

21 03 2011

I met a wonderful couple this week, grandparents with huge hearts for their family and for other local families. Born into poor circumstances themselves, this couple know what it is like to really struggle. They have tragedies in their own extended family to deal with but wanted to know how they could help Kaiti kids reach their potential.

These grandparents want to connect with other people their age and younger ones to talk about how their generation can make more useful contributions to young families in Gisborne.

We talked a bit about Tairāwhiti Positive Aging Trust and other groups that support seniors to be active in wider community life. Healthy churches, marae and sports clubs are still great places for intergenerational relationships to be nurtured and life lessons passed on to younger people.

Neighbours Day this weekend is an opportunity for us to think about the people we live close to but may not feel close to. When we reestablish trust and care within our streets it has been proven to reduce crime, increase safety, school attendance, health and happiness. Every one of us should know that when we have reason to worry, celebrate or grieve, someone will notice and someone will care. Many people in our communities don’t have that support and it is so encouraging to hear when residents are willing to make an effort to be that special someone for a neighbour or family in need.

I also met with a young man this week who is concerned about neighbourhood safety and, with signatures of support from everyone in his street, has been trying to get Council to install speed inhibitors to prevent another crash that could injure or kill a child. Whether or not he succeeds with his campaign for the speed bumps or chicanes (I certainly hope he does), it is awesome to see young people taking responsibility for making their neighbourhood a safe and enjoyable place for those who live there and visit the area.

It has been heartening to see the people willing to make the effort to present their ideas and concerns to Council committees and public meetings over the last few weeks.

Submissions on the Draft Annual Plan are due by 31 March. Whether or not the local stuff you care about is mentioned in the Plan, it is an essential part of the democratic process and you can make a submission about anything you are passionate about.

In the future I’m keen to look at extending the influence residents and (direct and indirect) ratepayers have on the Council budget. Participatory budgeting is a small but energetic movement through which ordinary people directly decide how a portion of their municipal budget is spent. Pioneered in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1990 as a democratisation strategy, the process has spread to over 1,200 cities around the world. From Cologne in Germany to Entebbe in Uganda, the concept is giving more people more control over how their tax dollars are spent locally. An interesting discovery through the models developed to date is that as residents spend time deliberating on the budget with their neighbours they start making decisions based on the collective good rather than individual interests.

Perhaps on Neighbours Day this weekend you could have a conversation about what would be the collective good for your street and the district as a whole? Oh, and please let us know what you decide.

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Community Outcomes, Vibrant Tairāwhiti, Connected Tairāwhiti, Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Positive Leadership, Empowered Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Sustainable Tairāwhiti, Relationships, Our Children & Youth, Our Elders, Our Families, Safe Tairāwhiti

Makorori Hill Crashes 2005-2010

21 03 2011

Here are crash stats for Makorori Hill 2005-2010:

SH35 Makarori Point Map Plot
SH35 Makarori Point Locality map (shows where the other map covers)
img-321112812-0001

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Safe Tairāwhiti

Resources to help children affected by earthquakes

7 03 2011

I got sent these hopefully (helpful) resources to assist whanau who have children affected by the Canterbury earthquakes:

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Connected Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Safe Tairāwhiti

GISCOSS Candidates Survey

21 09 2010

Here are the results of the Gisborne East Coast Council of Social Services – Questions for DHB & GDC Candidates…

1. Do you think Gisborne District Council should continue to facilitate the process for desired community-wide social, economic, environmental and cultural outcomes even if it was not a requirement in legislation?

Name of Candidate	Response
Andy Cranston	Yes – Definitely. Though we may be in partnerships or collaborations for this purpose.
Clive Bibby	Yes
Allan Hall	Yes
Anne Pardoe	Yes
Brian Wilson	Yes
Manu Caddie	Yes – it’s a no-brainer… GDC is the only district-wide, public institution that can coordinate these aspirations, if GDC does not do this then no other organisation is going to and we will have a much more fragmented community as a result.
Murray Palmer	Yes
Owen Lloyd	Yes
Rehette Stoltz	Yes
Steve Scragg	Yes – so long as it was only to facilitate and coordinate
Tina Karaitiana	Yes – it seems a shame that a Council would require legislation being the Local Government Act to do so. Communities work best when we consider all of the things that impact on people’s lives, and not just rubbish, roads and rates. All of these areas do not stand alone, they are all inter-related and are each in their own right critically important to our identity and our ability to create a community that is progressive. In a nutshell, we will never meet the needs and do our job as councillors’ justice if we don’t know what outcomes the community want us to achieve.
Don Blakeney	No comment
Larry Foster	Yes
Nona Aston	Yes Definately

2. Which Community Organisations have you had active involvement with in the past five years?

Name of Candidate	Response
Andy Cranston	Council Committees: Community Development, Wastewater Management, Civil Defence and Environmental and Policy. Volunteered on to Youth Transition Service which I chair. Youth Voice Heart of Gisborne Arts and Culture Advisory Panel Gisborne Boardriders Club (Executive member) Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti (Trustee) Wainui Community Group I attend virtually all the community consultation meetings in the city ward Affordable housing is an area of interest Also in the past have been a Board of Trustee member for Awapuni School and Lytton High School
Clive Bibby	Tolaga Bay save the Wharf Trust Dr Paratene Ngata Coastguard Rescue Boat – Tolaga Bay Tolaga Bay Foreshore Development Trust
Allan Hall	Citizens Advice Bureau Holy Trinity Church Rotary
Anne Pardoe	Chamber of Commerce (past president) Rotarian Gisborne West Rotary QUEST Charitable Trust (Foundation Trustee) SPCA
Brian Wilson	YMCA Tairawhiti Youth Voice CPHAC/DSAC health board committee Healthy Homes Retrofit steering committee
Manu Caddie	Waikirikiri School, Board of Trustees (Chairperson) Gisborne Cycling Advisory Group (Chairperson) Tairawhiti Housing Advisory Group (Convenor) · Presbyterian Support East Coast (Board Member) Whanau Ora (Tairawhiti Regional Advisory Group Member) Te Ora Hou Te Tairawhiti Trust (Trustee) Gisborne Council of Social Services (Executive Member) Tairawhiti Men Against Violence (Foundation Member) Gisborne Chamber of Commerce (Executive Member) · Rongo-i-te-Kai Marae (Treasurer) · Te Puna Reo o Puhi Kaiti (Whanau Committee Member) · Te Toka o Te Kokonga Te Kohanga Reo (Whanau Committee Member) · Council for International Development (National Board Member) Tairawhiti Youth Workers Collective (Chairperson) National Youth Workers Network Aotearoa (National Working Party Member
Murray Palmer	Te Iwi o Rakaipaaka Inc. Te Rakato Marae Tairawhiti Environment Centre Whakaki Lake Trust Te Penu Marae Transition Tairawhiti
Owen Lloyd	Truancy BOT Lytton and Whatatutu GISCOSS NZCOSS Social Services ITO YOTS Te Kupenga net Trust Tairawhiti District Police Advisory Group Trustee of Mangatu marae Arts in Public Places.
Rehette Stoltz	Whataupoko Playcentre Montessori Pre-School Sunshine Service Central Baptist Church
Steve Scragg	East Coast Hawke’s bay Conservation Board New Zealand Fish and Game Council
Tina Karaitiana	Tairawhiti Men Against Violence Women’s Institute Maori Women’s Welfare League Women’s Refuge Te Whare Whaia Matauranga Eastland Helicopter Trust Super Grans Gisborne Budgeting Services
Don Blakeney	Ngati Porou Uawa FM Whanau Whanui Kohanga Reo Te Aho o te Kura Pounamu (correspondence) NZ Film Commission Tolaga Bay Area School Gisborne Netball Association Uawa FM Netball Club Tokomaru Bay Netball Club Uawa Rugby Club Uawa Boardriders Club 48Hour Film Festival Dancing with the Pa’s Anaura Bay Youth Anaura Association Charitable Trust (Chairperson) Public Health Nutrition Ltd Sport Eastland Cre8tive Tairawhiti Tolaga Bay Area School Netball Club
Larry Foster	Heart of Gisborne Gisborne Port Company
Nona Aston	Te Whanau Aroha Positive Aging Te Kupenga Cancer Society GISCOSS Problem Gambling Kaumatua Group Road Action Committee Safe Tairawhiti Housing Action Group E Tu Elgin Aikinson and Taruheru Crescent Mangapapa Residents Rotary Gisborne Sister Cities keep Gisborne Beautiful City Safe Youth Council YTS Chair Health Camp School now Age Concern

3. Do you support the idea of a bylaw requiring a Warrant of Fitness (to ensure basic health and safety requirements are met) before any property is rented in the District?

Name of Candidate	Response
Andy Cranston	Yes – I am often horrified by the standard of many rental properties. Renting property is a partnership with responsibilities sides and often a higher standard by the landlord will be met with a higher standard of upkeep by the tenant. Unfortunately many landlords do not seriously assess and meet their responsibility and are coming up well short. It is a shame that a bylaw would be a requirement but a sad reality that sometimes the right thing needs to be enforced.
Clive Bibby	Yes
Allan Hall	No
Anne Pardoe	Yes – This is a residential tenancies act
Brian Wilson	Yes – In principal but would need to see the ramifications first of doing so
Manu Caddie	Yes – I have been promoting the idea through the Tairawhiti Housing Advisory Group
Murray Palmer	Yes – but note possibilities for work in lieu of rent where house safe etc
Owen Lloyd	Yes
Rehette Stoltz	Yes
Steve Scragg	No – I see this as a role of the Department of Building and Housing and the Health Department.
Tina Karaitiana	Yes – on the basis that the proposal is not beaucracy gone bad and not another strategy to generate huge amounts of revenue from landlords. My support is on the basis that healthy housing is a basic fundamental of good health and that we need to support standards that could increase the living conditions for the most vulnerable in our community. We lead many of the worst health statistics in the country and we need to think wider about how we can work collaboratively to address this. These are not good statistics that boost the image of our community. Those landlords who rent out safe, clean and healthy homes will have nothing to worry about.
Don Blakeney	No comment
Larry Foster	No
Nona Aston	Yes I would the problem would be the practical vetting of it

4. Would you support a proposal to require a permit to consume alcohol consumption in public places?

Names of Candidates	Responses
Andy Cranston	Yes – It is generally not necessary or desirable to consume alcohol in public places. It would be fantastic if alcohol consumption was partaken in a responsible and considerate manner, but that is very often not the case. Should an event or initiative be planned where consumption of alcohol was deemed to be appropriate then I believe the controls around meeting permit conditions would offer an appropriate enforcement tool.
Clive Bibby	Yes
Allan Hall	Yes
Anne Pardoe	Yes
Brian Wilson	Yes – again I would support some extra controls on alcohol consumption but would need to see the pros and cons of doing so
Manu Caddie	Yes – especially around parks, reserves and beaches
Murray Palmer	Yes – if that was the consensus of health providers etc
Owen Lloyd	Yes
Rehette Stoltz	Yes
Steve Scragg	No – not with out further information on its implementation
Tina Karaitiana	No – when we think about what we are trying to address when we put restrictions on drinking in public places it is to generally address drunkenness, violence, damage to property and harm to people, even perceived feelings of being unsafe. The people that are likely to get a permit are unlikely to be offenders in any of these categories and the offenders unlikely to get a permit, so a waste of time and paper. There are already laws available to the police to address this type of behaviour and drinking in public places is currently under Sale of Liquor Act review so direction on this issue would be lead nationally and not at a local level. However liquor bans can be used at a local level to address problem areas or to protect areas that alcohol shouldn’t be publicly consumed at, ie children’s playgrounds.
Don Blakeney	No Comment
Larry Foster	No
Nona Aston	Yes definitely again it is the practical vetting. I would rather see a by law saying which places it was allowed.

5. Do you support the proposal for Tairawhiti Youth Voice to have a non-voting seat on Gisborne District Council?

Name of Candidate	Response
Andy Cranston	Undecided – As a member of Youth Voice committee I absolutely want to say yes but there are some very practical issues to be worked through first. This of course would set a precedent to dozens of other organisations to have a seat and the council process could very quickly become compromised and unwieldy. This initiative is a great tool for our Youth though with regards to learning and mentoring and it is definitely worth further consideration. As a start point I would be trialling a non voting seat on the Community Development Committee.
Clive Bibby	No
Allan Hall	Yes
Anne Pardoe	No
Brian Wilson	Yes – as I am one of the ones promoting this idea
Manu Caddie	Yes – this is an excellent proposal and would require some ongoing support from GDC staff and local youth workers
Murray Palmer	Yes
Owen Lloyd	Yes
Rehette Stoltz	Yes
Steve Scragg	Yes – but would rather see a Tairawhiti youth council, we need to grow, develop our future community leaders
Tina Karaitiana	Yes – I believe that youth voice is critically important for our district. However I’m unsure whether a non-voting seat is the most effective way or only way to achieve this. What I do know is that we have a high youth population, they are our districts future and we need to get it right. I would need to speak with TYV to see how they think the relationship between Council and TYV could work best but I am in support of TYV and the young people who give their time to make our community a better place. We definitely need to utilise their skills more and the fresh perspective that they can bring not just to youth issues but to community issues in general.
Don Blakeney	Yes
Larry Foster	Yes
Nona Aston	Yes definitely

6. Overall do you think GDC is effective in involving people affected in decisions that affect them?

Name of Candidate	Response
Andy Cranston	Yes – GDC has been putting a lot of effort into consultation and really trying to find a way. There are frequent community meetings which are strategically placed throughout the region to enable high level participation. Management have continued to work with staff to enhance their customer service levels. I believe as councillors we have huge responsibilities in this area and should be available and participate at every opportunity. Our vote is on behalf and it is absolutely appropriate that we understand the community views on all manner of issues. We must be available and participate with all affected persons to have the ability to make any decisions on their behalf.
Clive Bibby	Yes
Allan Hall	Yes
Anne Pardoe	Yes
Brian Wilson	Yes – Council has got a lot better at doing this in the last couple of years but still needs to work on clever ways to more involve the community.
Manu Caddie	No – but there have been some real improvements since the new CEO has been in the job and new managers for Engineering & Works and Community Planning & Development.
Murray Palmer	No – not always – but very variable
Owen Lloyd	No
Rehette Stoltz	Yes
Steve Scragg	No
Tina Karaitiana	No – but I appreciate that often council is stuck in a hard place, with very limited resources, limited room for negotiations and many competing priorities however we can do better and we need to acknowledge the skills, ideas and local knowledge that our communities and subsectors of the community have. And to be honest, Council is more likely to get it right when we fully understand how these decisions that we make will affect people in our community. It’s far easier to consult properly and make well informed decisions than to be going back to redress poorly informed decisions, not to mention the cost of doing a job more than once.
Don Blakeney	No
Larry Foster	Yes
Nona Aston	Yes I think it is now on the right track . There is still a lot of work to be done but the staff have been really good and need support to get it better.

7. How confident are you that GDC has effectively implemented the Disability Strategy?

Name of Candidate	Response
Andy Cranston	Confident – The strategy has been ratified and is a work in progress. I believe awareness is growing and there is a lot more appreciation of the purpose and need for such a strategy.
Clive Bibby	Confident
Allan Hall	Confident
Anne Pardoe	Confident
Brian Wilson	Confident – at least that is what feedback I am getting from this sector. However the area that has not been dealt with sufficiently so far is the access of people with mobility scooters and other disabled people crossing roads especially at intersections and round a bouts.
Manu Caddie	Confident – there have been a number of practical actions taking such as installing ramps and fixing the crossings near roundabouts, kneeling buses, larger more obvious mobility parking spaces in the CBD, etc. but much more work needs to be done including a pedestrian crossing on Childers Rd near the CBD, responding to the needs of residents with disabilities in rural areas and an audit of Council facilities in relation to the needs of children and young people with disabilities
Murray Palmer	Not Sure
Owen Lloyd	Not Confident
Rehette Stoltz	Not Sure
Steve Scragg	Confident/ Not Sure
Tina Karaitiana	As a new prospect I am unable to answer this question, the best people to answer it are the disabled community, their families and workers in the sector, they would see daily the differences that this strategy may have made to their lives and if I was elected, I would be sure to involve this sector of the community in all stages of the strategy, making changes as we need to along the way so that they are able to participate as fully as possible in our community
Don Blakeney	Not Confident
Larry Foster	Confident
Nona Aston	Confident we can keep it up together

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Healthy Tairāwhiti, Positive Leadership, Empowered Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Local Governance, Relationships, Our Children & Youth, Our Elders, Our Families, Employment, Safe Tairāwhiti

Profile & Priorities

14 09 2010

Te Poho-o-Rawiri, Waitangi Day, 2010

I am standing for Council because I want to encourage much more public participation in discussions and decisions about the future for our communities. Diversity around the council table is important so the district leadership truly reflects the people they serve and we all move ahead together.

I moved to Gisborne with my wife Natasha Koia in 1998 to provide care for her elderly grandparents. We still live with her grandmother and now have our own family with two young children.

I have a degree in communication design, a post-graduate teaching qualification and have worked as a graphic designer, teacher, researcher and community organiser. My research and project management business was established in 2004 with local, national and international clients including the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Education and The World Bank. I currently hold governance roles with the Board of Trustees for Waikirikiri School and Presbyterian Support East Coast, and I served three years on the board of the NZ Council for International Development.

More information about my priorities, track record and a list of respected locals who endorse my election are available at: www.manu.org.nz

- – - – -

Question 1. Rates

Our region currently has huge infrastructure, transport and energy costs, low incomes and limited employment options. I would support Council appointment of a skilled advocate to influence central government so that any impact of national regulations are fully understood and compensated for by central government not ratepayers.

GDC needs to get much smarter at securing external resourcing for major projects. We need much more sophisticated negotiation skills to make the case for private and public investment in local infrastructure.

We should establish a ‘50,000 Taskforce’ with the goal of reaching this population by 2020. Design and implement an aggressive national and international marketing campaign to attract world class talent to relocate to the region bringing expertise and increased earnings.

- – - – -

Question 2. Infrastructure

Cycling and walking needs to be made much easier and safer than it is at present.

We need to urgently establish alternatives to more logging trucks in the city. We need the companies benefitting to pay for the constant road upgrades required.

The rail needs a rescue plan in place by April – based on a robust study of the options not rushed reports.

We need ultra-fast free broadband to every home by 2012.

We need a bylaw requiring all rental homes to pass a Warrant of Fitness to reduce the negative health, education, financial and social outcomes from substandard housing.

The community needs to think about and decide how we best support local businesses and how much big box retail we want in our town. We should take a different development path to places like Tauranga.

- – - – -

Question 3. Council involvement with economic and community development

The sobering social and economic issues in our region are not just statistics – they have faces and names as friends, family and neighbours.

Council doesn’t need to lead economic development but needs to ensure it is smart and takes into account potential impacts on social, environmental and cultural wellbeing. Similarly council doesn’t need to lead community development but needs to work with residents and other stakeholders to ensure communities lead their own development.

Local authorities should have a key role in coordinating central government funding coming into our region for social and economic development to make sure it is lined up with local priorities. I will encourage council support for residents groups at neighbourhood and village level to determine local priorities and development plans.

Question 4. Council provision of facilities and events for young people

Council doesn’t need to provide these directly, but should work with young people, community organisations and businesses to develop more opportunities for young people. This could include computer clubhouses, homework centres, all ages music venues, business incubators, community gardens, and sports and recreation facilities.

Young people are full citizens and Council should provide a non-voting seat for the Tairawhiti Youth Council around the Council table and on all committees.

- – - – -

Question 5. Biggest environmental problems

Significant challenges facing the district include farm and beach erosion, waterway sedimentation, agro-chemical pollution, minerals exploration, native habitat destruction, increased risk from extreme weather and our dependence on oil-based energy.

However one of the most important issues is the need to secure a collective commitment to adjust our lifestyles to ensure future generations are also able to enjoy the abundance we have been blessed with.

Council should lead by example – using more solar energy, providing loans paid off by rates for solar water heating, switching to hybrid vehicles, using bicycles around the CBD and planting vegetables in public gardens.

Council should facilitate more environmental education and community action and establish a regional Environmental Forum with statutory agencies, businesses and non-government organisations to identify, plan and monitor action to address priority environmental issues.

- – - – -

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Community Outcomes, Connected Tairāwhiti, Cultural Capital, Educated Tairāwhiti, Employment, Empowered Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Local Governance, Local Issues, Our Children & Youth, Our Elders, Our Families, Positive Leadership, Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Regional Economy, Regional Infrastructure, Relationships, Safe Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Sustainable Tairāwhiti, Tangata Whenua, Vibrant Tairāwhiti

GISCOSS Survey

8 09 2010

Gisborne East Coast Council of Social Services sent a questionnaire to all GDC candidates – these are my responses to their questions:

- – - – -

(a) YES – it’s a no-brainer… GDC is the only district-wide, public institution that can coordinate these aspirations, if GDC does not do this then no other organisation is going to and we will have a much more fragmented community as a result.

- – - – -

2. Which community organisations have you had active involvement with in the past five years?

Waikirikiri School, Board of Trustees (Chairperson)
Gisborne Cycling Advisory Group (Chairperson)
Tairawhiti Housing Advisory Group (Convenor)
Presbyterian Support East Coast (Board Member)
Whanau Ora (Tairawhiti Regional Advisory Group Member)
Te Ora Hou Te Tairawhiti Trust (Trustee)
Gisborne Council of Social Services (Executive Member)
Tairawhiti Men Against Violence (Foundation Member)
Gisborne Chamber of Commerce (Executive Member)
Rongo-i-te-Kai Marae (Treasurer)
Te Puna Reo o Puhi Kaiti (Whanau Committee Member)
Te Toka o Te Kokonga Te Kohanga Reo (Whanau Committee Member)
Council for International Development (National Board Member)
Tairawhiti Youth Workers Collective (Chairperson)
National Youth Workers Network Aotearoa (National Working Party Member)

- – - – -

3. Do you support the idea of a bylaw requiring a Warrant of Fitness (to ensure basic health and safety requirements are met) before any property is rented in the District?

(a) YES – I have been promoting the idea through the Tairawhiti Housing Advisory Group

- – - – -

4. Would you support a proposal to require a permit to consume alcohol consumption in public places?

(a) YES – especially around parks, reserves and beaches

- – - – -

5. Do you support the proposal for Tairawhiti Youth Voice to have a non-voting seat on Gisborne District Council?

(a) YES – this is an excellent proposal and would require some ongoing support from GDC staff and local youth workers.

- – - – -

6. Overall do you think GDC is effective in involving people affected in decisions that affect them?

(b) NO – but there have been some real improvements since the new CEO has been in the job and new managers for Engineering & Works and Community Planning & Development.

- – - – -

7. How confident are you that GDC has effectively implemented the Disability Strategy?

(b) CONFIDENT – there have been a number of practical actions taken over the past few years such as installing ramps and fixing the crossings near roundabouts, kneeling buses, larger more obvious mobility parking spaces in the CBD, etc. but much more work needs to be done including a pedestrian crossing on Childers Rd near the CBD, responding to the needs of residents with disabilities in rural areas and an audit of Council facilities in relation to the needs of children and young people with disabilities.

- – - – -

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Connected Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Empowered Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Our Children & Youth, Our Elders, Our Families, Safe Tairāwhiti

Government misses the mark on alcohol law reforms

24 08 2010

A local youth advocate is disappointed with government plans to focus on youth access to alcohol and says unless the Government implement the recommendations of the Law Commission in total there will be no change in the statistics around alcohol and the damage excess use causes.

“It is no use scapegoating young people”, says Manu Caddie, Trustee for Te Ora Hou Te Tairawhiti Trust that works with young people who have problems with alcohol and drugs. Mr Caddie contributed to Gisborne District Council’s submission on alcohol law reform last year and participated in a national meeting between Maori community leaders and the Law Commission to discuss the options they were considering putting to government.

“When we met with the Law Commission to discuss their ideas we told Sir Geoffrey Palmer that young people need to stop drinking as heavily as they do, but merely targeting laws against them will not work” said Mr Caddie, the government obviously haven’t taken heed of this message that was passed on by the Law Commission and as a result our binge-drinking culture will no doubt continue.”

Mr Caddie says Public Health guidelines known as the Ottowa Charter, have been implemented internationally for the last 25 years and show that unless the whole community is targeted very little change occurs in behaviour. Getting drunk and smoking cigarettes are seen as a hallmark of adult behaviour.

“Adults are smoking less because of our excellent public health laws and education in this area. If we want young people to decrease their alcohol use then adults have to do the same. Children and young people learn from the examples given to them by adults.”

The Law Commission recommended that if the government is to control the damage caused by excess alcohol drinking then they need to make it less available by curtailing when and where it is sold, and by increasing the price.

“If we are going to reduce the demand for alcohol then we must curtail its promotion through marketing and advertising and provide much more effective education programmes and access to treatment services for those who are having problems with the amount they drink and can no longer control it.”

92% of people with alcohol problems are aged over 20 years but the reform package focuses on people under the age of 20. “Some of the measures are good and we need to address youth attitudes to alcohol but the reforms miss the bulk of Law Commission calls for increasing excise tax, limiting advertising and lowering the blood alcohol levels for driving which would clearly have made the biggest difference.

We hear much about “whole of Government” approaches. Let’s take a “whole of Community” approach to the binge drinking culture we have developed in Gisborne today, and make our community a healthier and happier place to live.

ENDS

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Healthy Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Relationships, Our Children & Youth, Our Families, Educated Tairāwhiti, Safe Tairāwhiti

Rail Report Requires Realistic Review

23 08 2010

The highest railway viaduct in New Zealand is the 97 m high Mohaka viaduct spanning the Mohaka River about half way between Napier and Wairoa. This bridge is of steel girder construction, is 270 m long and was opened in 1937.

Organisers of last week’s symposium in Gisborne on the future of the Gisborne-Napier railway say the Hawkes Bay Regional Transport Committee report released yesterday does not provide sufficient analysis and an independent study on future scenarios needs to be commissioned.

“We still need a comprehensive review of future options for the line that takes into account social, safety and environmental benefits as well as freight volumes and tourism options. The paper from yesterday’s meeting will help in terms of the additional market information, but the relative roles of the modes into the future still deserve some in depth analysis” said Transition Tairawhiti spokesperson Manu Caddie.

“The paper presents facts, in some cases in more depth than we have had before, but it seems to take each mode as it is, and assumes that the relative role of road, rail and port will stay much the same. There is no recognition that the future traffic need not go by road, nor through the port. It could go by rail and save millions of dollars and many lives in the process.”

Mr Caddie believes there will be competition for the future traffic between rail, road, and coastal shipping. The quantities the paper suggests could well make the railway viable, but if the region wants to have a railway line, it has to use it and not assume that road or the port gets the first crack at the traffic.

“There is no analysis in the report of the ability (without extra expense and environmental impact) of the port to carry the increase in traffic. Nor is there any analysis of the impact of extra tonnage on the roads in safety terms, though there are figures provided that suggest that the roads are not particularly safe even with current traffic levels.”

The report commissioned after a meeting in Gisborne two months ago with Kiwirail CEO Jim Quinn, regional mayors and Chambers of Commerce, calculates the social cost value of road accidents in the region as $182 million.

“This is a staggering figure and we can expect many more lives to be lost as truck numbers dramatically increase, their length increases and their stopping distance requires an additional 20% on what existing trucks need.”

Hamilton City Council has an outright ban on allowing 53+tonne trucks on their roads, other than State Highways, until they know precisely the costs it will impose on the ratepayers. Mr Caddie suggested Gisborne could do the same, particularly considering the exclusion of truck trailers from fuel tax increases last year.

“The trucking industry says road repair costs will be reduced as the impact is less with the weight spread across more axles but we know the number of trucks coming into the city and on the Gisborne-Napier route is going to rapidly increase over the next ten years if we don’t use the rail.”

“Coastal shipping has real potential, but there are some major investments required in the Port that I’m not sure residents will be happy about ECT making on our behalf and while electric trains are common will we revert to sailing ships when the price of oil jumps?”

Mr Caddie believes the short timeframe in which the report had to be completed did not permit the consults time to do the in-depth analysis to make robust recommendations on the best way forward.

“There are a few options that haven’t been looked at seriously yet and we need some decent work undertaken on what existing importers and exporters are prepared to pay to transport their goods in and out under different economic environments.”

Mr Caddie said the regions should investigate with Kiwirail and the government the potential to provide the service at cost to get the volumes up.

“Two thirds of the $2m annual operating costs quoted by Kiwirail is depreciation for replacement costs, so a case could be made to the government to provide a subsidy of $660,000 for 10 years to cover basic maintenance and put the rest aside. If we don’t manage to get the volumes required in that period then they don’t need to worry about replacement costs and they can use the $13.5m saved somewhere else. If it is viable within 10 years then allocate the funds for replacement costs and everyone is happy.”

The Rotorua line has been mothballed for nine years and there is now substantial work required to re-open the line. Not a quick or cheap job, cost estimates range from $10-15m. Jon Reeves from the Campaign for Better Transport estimated, based on the Rotorua line assessment, it could cost over $100m to reopen the Gisborne-Napier line if it is mothballed.

Mr Caddie says the report also has some obvious gaps such as the true transit times of HCV’s (trucks).

“While the government has committed $40m to build a viaduct over the Matahorua Gorge to save less than a minute of travel time on the three hour trip, they can’t find similar funds to ensure we have rail access for the next 20 years.”

- – - -

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Connected Tairāwhiti, Regional Economy, Regional Infrastructure, Safe Tairāwhiti, Sustainable Tairāwhiti

Rental Housing WOF basics…

23 08 2010

The housing fitness standard (that could be a WOF for rentals) comprises a set of nine conditions and amenity requirements deemed to be the minimum necessary for a dwelling house to be fit for human habitation:
1. Have a suitably located lavatory for the exclusive use of the tenants
2. Have a bath and shower and wash hand basin with hot and cold water
3. Have satisfactory facilities for the preparation and cooking of food, including a sink with hot and cold water
4. Have an adequate supply of wholesome water
5. Have an effective system for the drainage of foul waste and surface water.
6. Have an adequate provision for lighting heating and ventilation
7. Be free from dampness prejudicial to the health of tenants.
8. Be free from serious disrepair.
9. Be structurally sound.

Ref: Decent_Housing_Standards – Kevin Reilly

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Regional Infrastructure, Our Children & Youth, Our Elders, Our Families, Safe Tairāwhiti

WOF for rental properties?

21 08 2010

Gisborne housing advocates are welcoming news that University of Otago researchers have developed a housing quality index that could be used as a Warrant of Fitness before any property is rented to tenants.

“We have been talking about ways to ensure every rental property in Gisborne is safe and not contributing to health problems for tenants, particularly the elderly and children” said Manu Caddie, Convenor of the Tairawhiti Housing Advisory Group.

The housing quality index is a comprehensive check-list which trained people can use to grade and report on a property’s attributes and defects from the ground up. While the check-list is not widely used yet, researcher Dr Michael Keall said it could be that, in the future, homeowners could commission such a report for tenants.

The index, the first of its kind in New Zealand, has been developed over the past five years by He Kainga Organa Housing and Health Research Programme staff, including Dr Keall, at the university’s Wellington campus.

Dr Keall is recognised as a world expert on measuring the health impacts of homes and said work on the index was done in collaboration with the Building Research Association of New Zealand (Branz) and based on a similar check-list produced in the UK.

At 42 pages, it was “quite comprehensive” but Mr Caddie suggested that it could be administered for less than the cost of one week’s rent.

“It will be a long time before something like this becomes law, but if there was enough support locally it may be possible to introduce a by-law requiring landlords to provide prospective tenants with an independent assessment based on the new index” said Mr Caddie.

Mr Caddie is standing for the City Ward of Gisborne District Council in upcoming elections and says if elected he would seek Council support to investigate the likely costs and benefits of administering such a system.

“I have been a landlord and I know how easy it is to lose money on rental properties, but I am also aware of some shocking rentals and at present there is nothing that requires landlords to ensure minimum safety and health standards are adhered to.”

Mr Caddie believes such a system would help property owners ensure the value of their assets was maintained and having an independent assessment before renting could be useful when there are disputes over damage allegedly caused by tenants.

- – - – - -

References:

http://sustainablecities.org.nz/members/michael-keall

www.healthyhousing.org.nz

Comments : Leave a Comment »

Categories : Prosperous Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Our Children & Youth, Our Elders, Our Families, Safe Tairāwhiti

Big Society – Big Community

3 08 2010

David Cameron re-launched his Big Idea this week. The new British prime minister says the ‘Big Society’ concept is about empowering communities, redistributing power and fostering a culture of volunteerism. In a speech in Liverpool, Cameron said community groups should be able to run post offices, libraries, transport services and shape housing projects. While one motive for the Tory version of ‘people power’ is obviously to help lower Britain’s debt which is spiralling out of control, I think there is some substance in the plan.

Modern society has turned many aspects of our lives into commodities. Citizens have been replaced by consumers and nearly all our relationships are mediated by the market. In the market-based society we earn money to pay other people to care for our young and elderly, we become slaves to debt, and outsource our responsibilities. Families become less important and effective and neighbourhoods lose their ability to function properly.

Gisborne has much to offer the rest of the world, and it’s not just a wall of wood, wine or wool. What we can offer is a healthy model of true community – and we are not too far from manifesting that goal.

I was so encouraged to see the big turnout this week to a presentation by historian Jane Luiten on the history of local government on the East Coast. The diversity of our community was represented in the 60 or so people from all walks of life who came to hear some challenging stories from our local history. The interest in this topic from young and old, Maori and Pakeha and new immigrants gave me a deep sense of optimism for the future of our community.

There are a few simple truths that citizens of Gisborne can hold on to if we want to be a place where more people love to live. Our neighbourhoods are the primary source of our health as a community. Whether we are safe and secure in our neighbourhoods is largely within our control. In our neighbourhoods, towns and villages we have the power to build a resilient economy. We are local people who must raise our children.

We live in a democracy, a political system that gives us the freedom to choose a common vision and then make choices that bring that vision into being. But the institutions we look to, whether they are government and its agencies, businesses and the ‘free’ market or civil society organisations cannot make us into a community. Only families and neighbourhoods acting together can create a sense of belonging, unconditional care and acceptance, trust and support.

Community organiser John McKnight suggests a community becomes powerful when three things are happening:

The Giving of Gifts: The gifts of people in our neighbourhood are boundless, every single person has something of value to contribute to our wellbeing.

The Presence of Association: Through association our gifts can be shared, celebrated and magnified and become productive.

The Compassion of Hospitality: There are no strangers here, only friends who haven’t met – we welcome the gifts of new people and need to share our own with them.

The characteristics of the Big Society may also be those of an abundant, healthy community: kindness, generosity, cooperation, forgiveness and the acceptance of fallibility. These virtues aren’t delivered by the market, or by government or local body organisations. They come from within us and could become what makes Gisborne a fantastic place to live.

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Community Outcomes, Vibrant Tairāwhiti, Connected Tairāwhiti, Healthy Tairāwhiti, Positive Leadership, Empowered Tairāwhiti, Social Development, Cultural Capital, Relationships, Our Children & Youth, Our Elders, Our Families, Safe Tairāwhiti

Cool Kids Wear Lids

29 07 2010

Responding to a call by national cycling advocacy groups for a review of the cycle helmet legislation, Gisborne Cycling Advisory Group’s Chairperson Manu Caddie said local cyclists had differing views on the matter.

“While there is a lot of research suggesting there is no scientific evidence that the helmet legislation has prevented cyclist deaths and serious injuries, it is a contentious issue and many local cyclists support the law as it stands” said Mr Caddie.

The Cycling Advisory Group meets monthly to advise Gisborne District Council and other agencies with the aim of making Gisborne cycling safer and more popular.

The group agrees that priority needs to be given to other safety issues such as motorist behaviour, cyclist education and roading improvements.

“We are very happy to see the new cycleways across the Gladstone Road bridge that have gone in this week” said Mr Caddie. “The new road markings for cyclists on the Lytton and Gladstone Road roundabout have also received favourable feedback from our members”.

The Cycle Advocacy Network is a national body of affiliated cycling groups. CAN’s position that it is not calling for optional wearing of helmets, but a review the wider effects to date of helmet-wearing legislation.

Whilst to many laypeople, the benefits of helmet-wearing legislation at first glance seem self-evident and beyond argument, further investigation suggests that there may be unintended consequences in terms of the perception and take-up of cycling, and the subsequent health of the general population. The fact that the countries with the greatest levels of cycling and best cycling safety records do not have compulsory helmet laws also calls into question the relative priority of such a law.

CAN has suggested that the law in NZ be reviewed to evaluate whether the benefits of having compulsory helmet-wearing outweigh the costs. Since the law’s inception in 1994, this has never been done before in NZ.

- – - – - -

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Our Children & Youth, Regional Infrastructure, Safe Tairāwhiti

Safer Communities, Together

29 07 2010

The decision by Gisborne Police last week to change the way they report on crime may have some merit, at least if experiences from elsewhere are anything to go by.

The local controversy reminds me of the Anne Murray song “A Little Good News” we used to sing at school assemblies in 1984:

There’s a local paper rolled up in a rubber band
One more sad story’s one more than I can stand
Just once how I’d like to see the headline say
“Not much to print today, can’t find nothin’ bad to say”

We all want to live in a safe community and both the Police and media can play an important role in reducing crime in our communities. The problem is that because so much of news media content is dedicated to crime stories our perceptions no longer match reality.

A recent Canadian study found that half of newspaper and TV news coverage and two-thirds of radio items were focused on crime, deviance and control. Crime drama has been the most popular genre of television programming since the 1970s.

Richard Ericson in a study entitled ‘Visualising Deviance’ claimed that deviance is the essence of news, ‘the defining characteristic of what journalists regard as newsworthy’.

Professor Ray Surette is an expert in the relationship between the media and crime, he draws a direct link between the ‘profit imperative’ of news media and sensationalising criminal cases by the media. In the case of The Gisborne Herald however we know that the staff commitment to family violence prevention is a key motivator in coverage of not only the crime stories but a much broader public education project that includes discussion from all angles on the issue.

The Journal of Communication published a longitudinal study in 2007 that showed media reporting of crime accounted for the public thinking crime was four times more common than the actual crime rates.

More importantly, research has found that fear of crime produces a range of negative social outcomes. A literature review published in the International Review of Victimology in 1996 found that fear of crime erodes quality of life and well-being, restricts movement, motivates costly precautions, encourages ‘flight’ from deprived neighbourhoods and harms social trust, inter-group relations and the capacity of communities to exercise social control. Seems like a comprehensive list of the things Ka Pai Kaiti and others have been working hard to counter for over a decade in our neighbourhood.

Media portrayals of crime nearly always differ from the official crime statistics and tend to focus on individual cases without examining the broader context of offending. A Ministry of Justice report from 2007 suggests public understanding of offending and the justice system are largely informed by the media but public knowledge of trends in offending and of our justice systems is poor.

Opinion polls that ask simple questions and provide little context show that many people: over-estimate the amount and seriousness of crime, particularly youth offending; think the justice system and sentences are too lenient; and favour punitive responses to offending. More in-depth research, where people are given more information about specific cases, evoke less punitive responses favouring prevention and rehabilitation.

So I guess a challenge for The Gisborne Herald is to continue to increase the amount and quality of in-depth reporting about both the causes and prevention of different kinds of local offending. Another challenge might be to set and monitor a benchmark for stories on local crime as a proportion of overall reporting on local issues. On that issue I think this newspaper would have a better record than most.

Some empirical studies that readers may be interested in include:

- Dowler, K., Fleming, T. & Muzzatti, S. (2006) Constructing crime: media, crime, and popular culture. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, October 2006;

- Doyle, A. (2006) How not to think about crime in the media. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, October 2006;

- Maxwell, G. (1999) Youth offending: putting the headlines in context. Ministry of Justice

- Soler, M. (2001) Public Opinion on Youth, Crime and Race: A guide for advocates. United States: Youth Law Centre.

- Hollway, W. and Jefferson , T. (1997), ‘The Risk Society in an Age of Anxiety: Situating the Fear of Crime’, British Journal of Sociology, 48:255–66.

- Hough , M. ( 1995 ), Anxiety about Crime: Findings from the 1994 British Crime Survey. London : Home Office Research Study No. 147

Comments : 1 Comment »

Categories : Relationships, Safe Tairāwhiti

Cold comfort from Ministry of Economic Development

13 07 2010

The Gisborne Herald Editorial on Saturday 10 July suggested that information provided by the Ministry of Economic Development should alleviate fears of a big oil spill in our waters. On the contrary, the surprising thing is how little concrete reassurance the MED information actually provides. I guess it is positive that the government is now willing to engage in a discussion with our community about the process they used for granting exploration rights for oil and gas off East Cape and the associated risk to our region.

MED quoting from Petrobras’ own website to justify its safety record reminds me of how Transocean Ltd, the operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, was also honoured by regulators for its safety record. The very day of the explosion, executives were aboard celebrating its seven straight years free of serious accidents!

While Petrobras say they are focused on gas reserves in the Raukumara Basin, we know the license is not restricted to gas exploration. The presence of oil in the area was a big selling point during the tendering process based on GNS seismic mapping and satellite imaging.

Is the Editorial’s claim that “the company now ranks well amongst its peers” supposed to give us confidence? Claiming that Petrobras is the biggest deep water oil producer in the world does not mean much given that the practice is so new and few companies are prepared to take the associated risks. The Gulf of Mexico disaster has demonstrated the inherent risk of any deep water drilling.

MED claims the statement that “The entire industry thought the BOP [blowout preventer] was adequate, but it wasn’t enough,” is unsupportable. The statement was made by Professor Segen Estefen from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who actually tests this kind of equipment for Petrobras and other companies. He was not referring just to the BOP used by the Deepwater Horizon rig but to the technology in general. In a television interview just last week Estefen said the BOP failure was “a big surprise, because the state-of-the-art contingency plans didn’t work in very deep waters”. He said most oil companies that he has contact with were shocked at BP’s repeated failures to cap its damaged well.

If MED are ‘monitoring the US response’ and think ‘Norway is one excellent forward model for New Zealand’ to emulate, why has our government not put a hold on exploration licences like those two countries have, until the investigation determines what went wrong?

I also wonder how much of the information provided through MED came from Hill and Knowlton, the PR company working for Petrobras. Just this year Hill and Knowlton was awarded a million dollar (per annum) contract with Petrobras specifically to help the company sanitise deep water drilling in the face of growing public and political opposition. This is the same PR company that represented the tobacco industry for years after the link between tobacco and cancer was proven and duped the American public into supporting the first invasion of Iraq by using false testimony at congressional hearings. Petrobras is the 34^th largest corporation in the world – I wonder what East Coast communities could do with $1m per year for research and PR to oppose the drilling plans?

The one helpful piece of information supplied by MED was the industry training programme that will try to turn around the trend of importing qualified oil and gas workers from overseas. This piece of good news is however, small consolation given the enormity of the risk our region is being exposed to.