Posts by Abbie
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Pollen falling on the road into Waitara.
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Can I add the 23 biggest and best pohutukawa that the Taranaki Regional Council are hellbent on felling beside our Waitara River? https://www.facebook.com/SAVE.the.Waitara.Riverside.Pohutukawa
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Busytown: Beware of the Leopard, in reply to Sacha,
I think the difference between the current PM and local government is that in the former case, he is synonymous with his office. In the latter it is often that the elected person is the front veneer whereas the backroom just continues as it always has done. Several councillors have told me how they despair at ever managing to get any change once elected. This is why I have given my partner clear instructions to shoot me on the spot should I ever be flattered into putting my name forward as a candidate.
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Busytown: Beware of the Leopard, in reply to Sacha,
That would be "the office" as opposed to the mayor, I assume?
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I felt a definite wave of hollow laughter at your story, Jolisa, having been involved in the battle to try and save the pohutukawa that line the river in my local town of Waitara. It is a long story but what do you call the leopard when it denies democratic process? “Make a deputation to Taranaki Regional Council” said all the District Council people. The engineer’s report advocating removal was finally to be tabled, but not in draft form. TRC refused to supply a copy of the report. We applied for a deputation to be heard. It was declined. They went into committee and approved the report in secrecy.
At the next meeting to ratify the minutes, we applied again to present a deputation. Again it was denied. A few souls turned up to protest (they hold their meetings in the back streets of Stratford 45 minutes away) so all but one councillor entered the building by the back door to avoid us. Some then put down their placards and flag and quietly entered the chamber to listen. The chair put the meeting into committee so they were escorted from the building.
That’s our Taranaki Regional Council. Above democracy. Above accountability. They don’t even pretend to engage with the community, unless it is the sections of the community which agree with what they have already decided to do. They have decided the matter is closed.
If PA readers who use Facebook felt inclined to “like” the Save the Waitara Pohutukwa Page (https://www.facebook.com/SAVE.the.Waitara.Riverside.Pohutukawa) it would thrill Margo, who set up that page, to see numbers spike again. It is her first ever political action.
It may be worth you checking the Significance and Engagement Policy for your council, although it may still be in draft form. I say this because I am plugging through the draft policy for our district council and Auckland’s policy has been sent to me as a good example. Attempting to engage with councils is one of the most disempowering experiences I have had, but sometimes if you bludgeon them with their own policy, it does at least make them nervous even if they immediately duck for cover. And you need a two-pronged approach – one to the paid staff who wield the actual power and one to the elected representatives whom most of us mistakenly think wield more power. I can email you the Auckland one if you want it.
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I served on a jury where a seedy middle aged man was charged with repeated rape of a child aged 12 to 15. He video-ed it and we sat through 90 minutes of ghastly video where she held a pillow over her face while he raped her. Even with the video, getting a conviction was a close-run thing. "She didn't protest very hard," said one juror. "If it was rape, she'd fight more" said another. "Did penetration actually take place?" asked another couple (the perpetrator had an erectile dysfunction issue).
Without the video, we would NEVER have convicted. The victim was grilled in the witness box over many hours. The accused declined to give evidence.
The victim had not initiated the prosecution with a complaint. A third party had found the video and handed it to the police who decided to charge. I was traumatised by the four day trial and I was just a juror. What about her? I still wonder, even after five years.
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Speaker: The problem of “horror tenants”…, in reply to Elinor Chisholm,
Agree there is a need to tackle sub standard rental housing stock. Which includes state houses - it is appalling that many of these remain uninsulated and without a source of efficient heating. Social housing should lead the way with basic standards, not be exempt from it. I do not share your confidence in the Tenancy Court process (which is there to serve the tenant as much as the landlord, of course) but at least we do have some strong tenancy law to protect all parties. These are separate issues and I wish we could separate discussion about the need for rental housing WOFS from unhelpful categorizing of landlords as greedies or tenants as destructive lowlifes.
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I think this piece is as polarising as the Herald story that preceded it. Yes, much of our rental housing is unacceptably poor (the rental house WOF has much going for it). Yes there are greedy, uncaring landlords - but not all. And they don't, as Matthew Poole says, have the right to put tenants on the street for no reason. There is tenancy law and the 90 day notice. Landlords are not going to evict satisfactory tenants for little or no reason because good tenants are not easy to find. Not all landlords are grasping property speculators ripping off the poor. I describe ourselves as accidental landlords - we have one rental house that we do not wish to sell. It is in the middle of land we use and we hope one day one of the children might like to come home to that house. We could tell you about the good and bad of tenants. How about the ones who were setting up a P lab and got to pay off their debt to us at $20 a week over several years? How about the family where we ended up intervening in major domestic violence with the Mental Health Crisis Team and every other helping agency in town involved? That was when we found that insurance on rental houses has so many exclusions it is hard to see what we are paying for, short of 100% accidental loss. When we get good tenants, we certainly look after them well. Still the economics don't stack up without capital gains. $20 000 for a new bathroom and redoing the decking two years ago. That is a lot of rent. On average we recarpet every seven years. We have added underfloor insulation and upgraded the ceiling insulation. When I see sweeping generalisations about landlords, I feel just as defensive as tenants who are tarred with the same brush. It is not either/or in this debate and I don't think polarising and scapegoating either side helps. But after being a landlord, would I ever consider investing in a domestic property portfolio? Never in a month of Sundays.
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Capture: Spring Breaks, in reply to Lilith __,
Oh Lilith! Do you know the name of that top pink magnolia? It is none other than Mark Jury, named for him when he was but a small boy. We have the original plant in our park here.
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Reflecting my forlorn mood today, I give you man with dead tui (found) and magnolias. He freezes such birds until he has enough to hand on to a local kuia who still makes feather cloaks.
