To the Editor,

I would like for you to correct a mistake that the option which NZTA board are pushing is the wish of the majority. This is factually incorrect.
The usual definition of the word majority is more than half the group or more technically 50% plus one.
So what were the figures ?
WLR Expressway option: 1609 (36.2%).
Other 1177 (26.5%).
Eastern option: 1041 (23.4%).
Western option: 619 (13.9)
These clearly show that the majority (63.8) who returned the forms voted for something other that the option chosen by NZTA board.
Read that again, two thirds did not vote for the proposed expressway option.
Clearly the only correct use of the word majority is that the majority did not vote for the chosen option.
An additional point to note. First the v
oting group here is those who returned the forms, and not the full electorate of the Kapiti coast which is some 45,000.
So now that 1069 becomes 3.6 percent. Pretty pathetic really.

Second, the minutes of the NZTA meeting say the majority of these latter (other) submissions supported the construction of the two-lane Western Link Road. That is at least 589 by my maths. Add these to the Eastern option makes 1630. What is significant about this number is that it is MORE than those who wanted the 4 lane expressway on the WLR route.

Regards

Colin

The Mandy Hager Report

Business is in; Community out (Part Two)

(Editor’s Note: Last week we ran the first part of Mandy Hager’s analysis of the importance of Don Brash’s think tank report on the NZ economy. and the alleged need to ‘catch up’ with Australia.

We take up the thread from the last paragraph of the previous story – after Ms Hager analysis of Dr Brash’s wish list).

Brash’s fellow travelers

By Mandy Hager

Why so much fuss you might ask, when Brash is not part of the government? Let me make this clear.

Look at the people in and close to the government – run through their names and faces in your mind – and who do you see? Yes, that’s right: exactly the same people who so eagerly gave their loyalty and fundraising dollars to Don Brash before he was so unceremoniously outed.

Nothing else has changed here but the front man, and if you are naive enough to think that John Key is any different, then check where he was placed before Brash was exposed. Right at his side, waving the banner for him all the way.

Those same old faces – McCully, Brownlee, Ryall,  Carter, Coleman, Collins,  Groser, Joyce, Smith, Williamson et al – have not swerved away from the policies Brash now advocates, they have merely re-branded themselves with the help of clever (and expensive) spin.

Of course they’re all crying that his recommendations have gone too far, but they have also said  they will consider the task force’s suggestions as they move forward (in case you didn’t know, that’s politic-speak for ‘let the fuss die down then do it anyway.’)

We’ve seen this so often before and yet where are the voices calling their bluff?

Simple strategy

Their strategy’s so simple it’s insulting to the ordinary person yet, thanks in many ways to a cowed and sycophantic media, somehow we have been conned into buying it: scare the hell out of the general public by extreme pronouncements, assure said public that no such dreadful measures will be taken, and then slip through as many of them as you can under another guise (often then dressed-up as the newer, kinder version.)

It’s obscene and cynical, and yet we let it happen by not speaking out.

Look again at the suggestions and ask yourself who will be impacted if they are enacted?

Good people. Decent hard-working people. The old. The young. The poor. The infirm. Parents. Learners. The besieged middle-class. In fact, the only ones who will benefit by such policies are the rich – and they are already rich enough without this help.

Brash’s (and I believe National’s) bottom line is focussed on feathering their own nests – building a more secure future for themselves and their families at our expense.

They have no real compassion for ordinary folk, and when they’ve hovered up all our riches and our resources they’ll leave us broken and move on.

Think Fay and Richwhite; think Hotchin and Watson of Hanover Finance; remember all the corrupt bankers like those who have been scuppered recently in the US. There are no scruples to these people; their motives are purely selfish and greedy, plain as that.

Key and the high-flying financial world

Don’t be deceived by Key’s ‘everyman’ pretence and never forget the commercial high-flying world that he has come from.

He doesn’t know what it’s like to have to toss up whether to take a baby to the doctor because there is no money or transport to do so; he’s never had the stress of wondering how his children will cope with an enormous student loan.

He sure as hell doesn’t know what it’s like to watch your children going hungry or to starve yourself so they do not. Quite frankly, he doesn’t care.

I can say this with great certainty, for if he did he wouldn’t be hell-bent on eroding the few social gains we’ve made. This country was based on a desire to support all its citizens, rich or poor – an egalitarian society – and it has always been something which most of us hold dear.

Please, open your eyes. If we continue to let these greedy white men siphon off our nation’s wealth and undermine our very real social responsibilities we will all suffer in the end.

‘Children of the rich’

Brash says we have to make these changes if we are to keep our children in this country and protect their lifestyles.

I say the children of the rich already have more doors opened to them than they could possibly need. Our government should be in the job of opening doors to those who have been previously barred, not barring the doors to more and more.

Personalise it, think how the future looks to your child (or niece or nephew, grandchild, or the kid next door) if we do not act for proper socially responsible equity here and now. I shudder to think.

They will inherit a collapsing country on a collapsing planet, with no hope of changing their circumstances or dreaming of a better life.

We are at a pivotal and unique time in human history.

We can either continue down the road of greed, selfishness and waste and watch our futures implode while a few elite fats cats steal all our family jewels — or we can start to try to do things another way.

It is possible to share the wealth, to preserve human dignity and live in real peace and harmony. The choice is ours.

Act now. Make your voices heard. Stand up for ethical behaviour – not just for some ideological sleight of hand that promises you a future John Key, Don Brash and their buddies will do their best to never let you have.

The time for politeness and silence is over. Put on your gloves and fight for what is right.