Have Your Money Will Travel

How much confidence can the New Zealand tax payer have in politicians who claim to be spending our money as if it were their own when it is revealed that Labour spent $783,000 on travel in the period between December 2007 and February 2008 not $336,000 as stated earlier by Treasury.

Shockingly, Labour clearly had no idea how much it had spent.

It paints a picture of a Labour government which had no idea what money they were spending and what it was being spent on.

Taxing your Lifestyle

It never ceases to amaze what United Nations officials using public money can come up with.

At a recent seminar United Nations Under-Secretary-General Dr Anna Tibaijuka told a public gathering in Auckland last week the world could not tackle climate change and other environmental issues without redesigning city living.

The answer unsurprisingly, given the source, is a tax on your lifestyle.
Dr Tibaijuka who is the executive director of UN-HABITAT, the arm of the UN charged with promoting socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities stated:

“Maybe there is a case for putting up a tax and those who live in the suburbs have to pay it."

Why is it that UN officials living at the public’s expense in Manhattan penthouses always to know what is best for everybody else?

Letter to the Times

Time for referendum

I REFER to correspondence on stage two of the Pacific Events Centre and Noel Robinson’s appeal we look after future generations by approving this venture.

Mr Robinson may be in a position to give money to this but there are many people around Manukau who cannot afford $394.

Frankly, the city council has no mandate to invest in private enterprise and I’m surprised this is still being discussed.

We were bullied into the Pacific Events Centre by Messrs Curtis and Robinson despite feedback from the community being against it.

I would suggest a voting slip be included with the next rates notice asking ratepayers to vote on stage two.

Ratepayers could then return it with their payment and the votes be counted, so the council gets a mandate.

Would the mayor go ahead on this basis and according to the ratepayers’ votes – and would Mr Robinson be willing to accept this?

Don Barker, Howick

Remembering the First Sub 4 Minute Mile May 6, 1954

Fifty-five years ago, on a very windy day at the track on Iffley road at Oxford University, Roger Bannister, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway made sports history. The world record set by Swede, Gunder Hagg, from 1945, of 4:01.4, was broken with the first mile under four minutes with a time of 3:59.4

It was the same year that Ed Hillary reached the summit of Mt Everest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEgHhijFnEU

Q+A’s Guyon Espiner interviews Rodney Hide

Points of interest:- Government views Auckland assets as state assets, so they won’t be sold in National’s first term- ACT Bill to cap all local body rates will be before Parliament in September: Mayors “almost as one” oppose it, National “keen to have a look at it”- ACT has delayed its Taxpayers’ Rights Bill back from “within six months” of the election to 2010- Hide committed to cutting “billions of dollars” from Government spending- Hide: “I think we have got a great deal of overlap and confusion within Cabinet… needs a tidy up”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0904/S00244.htm

Fatty, You're Warming the Earth!

Fat people require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat, and the problem will worsen as the population literally swells in size, a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says.

See full story: UK Reuters

Who's Counting

This letter first appeared in local Manukau papers this week.

WHILE attending a public meeting I was approached by a local businessman who congratulated me on my stand against the white-water rafting proposal being promoted by the trust that operates the Pacific Events Centre.

Amazingly, he told me members of the trust had shown him the business plan.
Amazingly, I say, because councillors who are being asked to make a decision on the trust’s request for $40 million have never sighted a business plan. All councillors have been told is the proposal is viable.

Remember the former mayor’s famous words when speaking of the Pacific Events Centre, “this won’t cost the rate payer a penny”.

So far it’s cost $52 million but then again who’s counting?