Northland -Te Tai Tokerau - Whangarei

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Comment by Jenny Kirk on May 21, 2009 at 2:47pm

Two meeting notices -

Te Tai Tokerau - Northland LEC Meets 2.30pm on Sunday 24 May at the Kaikohe electorate office

Whangarei LEC Meets 6pm Monday 25 May at John Furey's place - 68 Kara Road. If its a bit boggy, and you don't have a 4WD, please park on the concrete in front of John's house. Apparently 4WDs are okay on the back lawn when its wet !

Raffle Tickets
Please bring your sold tickets for TTT's rugby league jerseys raffle, and money, to either of these meetings.

Comment by Jenny Kirk on May 21, 2009 at 8:43am

Kia Ora TeAupouri
Thanks for this information about the delay in Whangarei office opening. To keep you up-to-date with what we're doing in Whangarei, I would appreciate it if you could provide me with your personal email address and home phone number. Meanwhile we're holding our usual LEC meeting this coming Monday - 25 May, 6pm at John Furey's place 68 Kara Road. And the Northland-TTT LEC is meeting on Sunday 24 May 2.30pm in the Kaikohe office.
Please let me have your contact details. Thanks. Jenny - Chair, Whangarei LEC. jennykirk@orcon.net.nz

Comment by TeAupouri Whautere on May 20, 2009 at 9:45pm

Tena koutou o nga putake o te roopu Reipa.Te hanga nei ekore te tari a Kelvin roto o Whangarei e whaka tuwhera tia ate rua tekau ma iwa o te nei marama. (Greetings to all in Grassroots Labour in Whangarei TeTaITokerau and Northland It seems the official opening of Kelvin' Davis's office will not be happening on the 29th of May as anticipated.Renovations are more complexed than first thought.Shall keep you all posted

Had meeting with M.S.D.regional commissioner and some teamleaders yesterday,intention being to establish working relationship between Kaumatua/kuia in addressing -Connecting Young People (Northland Youth Gang Strategy.)

Comment by Tracy Dalton on April 29, 2009 at 10:54am

MP Shane Jones weekly newspaper column
FIXING UP THE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ACT
As you read this, I am holed up in Auckland at a two day meeting with breaks only for sleeping and eating. Twelve hours of each day will be spent listening to the concerns of New Zealanders who have taken the time and trouble to let Parliament know their thoughts on how best to update and improve the Resource Management Act.1991.

Eighteen years ago, the Resource Management Act was the largest piece of legislation ever to come before the Parliament. It repealed more than 75 laws and amended more than 150 other laws in an attempt to integrate and care for our natural and physical resources. It provided a new process for the management of land, water, soil, air quality, geothermal energy, pollution control, noise, and the coast.

It’s a somewhat dislocating experience for me personally to sit on this committee, given I was a member of the Core Group that designed the original bill for Sir Geoffrey Palmer, along with Cathryn Ashley Jones, now deputy Government Statistician, Joan Allen, environmental lawyer, and Denise Church, former CEO of the Environment Ministry.

Today we are struggling to give a fair hearing to the 840 submissions sent in by interested organisations, local government and concerned members of the public, so I can only be thankful that I was not on the parliamentary side of proceedings 18 years ago when over 3,000 submissions were received.

Some of the most impassioned submissions so far relate to the protection of trees in Auckland. You may very well chuckle but my Auckland colleagues have many tales, some murky, others humorous, about trees poisoning neighbourly relations. And more about neighbours poisoning trees!

Hopefully the new legislation will significantly reduce the time wasted in coming to decisions, the unpleasant and unnecessary litigation some people have been subjected to, and the overbearing bossiness of bureaucracy.

The original bill, introduced into Parliament by Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Labour Prime Minister at the time, was signed off two years later and after a change of government by National’s Environment Minister Simon Upton. Hopefully Parliament can display the same harmony and singleness of purpose in getting the present amendments agreed to.

The new bill is called the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill 2009, somewhat ironically, since discussion on proposed changes to the existing bill is already in danger of getting bogged down on the detail and creating an even deeper quagmire for people such as land and property owners, who have been frustrated by the delays and denials of the present Act..

The current government promises to lift productivity and drive the development of our nation’s infrastructure. Yet one of the more peculiar select committee sessions was hearing major infrastructure developers: Telecom, Transpower, Kiwi Rail, and Transit NZ, complain that the RMA streamlining amendments will increase costs and cause delays in achieving infrastructure outcomes.

Ministers obviously need to talk to each other or those of us wanting better power, roads, and Broadband might be the casualties of this law’s unintended consequences. ENDS.

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 17, 2009 at 7:40pm

Hon Shane Jones MP
16 March 2009
Northland Age Column
TAKING THE NORTH TO AUCKLAND
In the Labour party we have a system known as “buddy MPs”. Obviously I continue to spread good will, search for amity and forge friendships in Northland. This flair of mine however is often called upon in areas further south.
So as the buddy MP for Tamaki Makaurau, the Auckland Maori seat, my cheerful disposition was set to work in Auckland on Saturday. I and 13 other Labour party colleagues had the good fortune to mix with 200,000 visitors, participants, dancers, cooks, and other folk interested in the affairs of Pasifika.
I refer of course to the highly successful Pacific festival held at Western Springs every year. All of the island groupings who have significant resident populations in NZ were on show. The fine weaving of the Niuean hats, especially those with mother-of-pearl braided into the crown are a prize worth suffering multiple servings of taro for!

Unfortunately none of the stalls could produce a hat to fit my head. The Rarotongan hats, while slightly more expensive were no more expansive. The Tongans had lavalavas covered with every flower and colour of the Pacific, definitely capable of fitting my midriff, but no hat for my head. Ditto the Tokelauans, the Samoans, the Tuvaluans, the Kiribati, the Fijians and the Tahitians.

It wasn’t until I arrived at the tangata whenua stalls that, warmed by hangi smoke and surrounded with evidence of smoked fish, mussels, päua, I finally found a hat that fitted. The donor of the hat observed “this is definitely made for you, Shane, because you and the weaver are from the North and it was created with a square head in mind!”

So after leaving the sweet voices of the Pacific, the tempting hips and the hats that didn’t fit, I made my way over the weekend to the Tarara Day or the annual Dalmatian-Maori Festival. Roasted lamb spit, more hangi, and a hat that fitted. So I now have a Maori woven hat, sans mother-of-pearl, and a hat sporting the flag of Croatia and the Waipareira Trust. A potentially heavy burden, given John Tamihere is the CEO of the Trust!
My National Party and Labour Party parliamentary colleagues all observed that I was right to receive such hats. After all, for many of us from the Far North, that is our heritage.

During my visit to these Auckland events many people raised with me the future of Auckland City Council. The Pasifika people pointed out that this Council had abandoned the opening night of Pasifika. The Dalmatian contacts were nervous that their Waitakere City Council might be swallowed and regurgitated by Mayor John Banks and his presidential ambitions.
The Waitakere Maori quizzed me as to whether or not Mr Tamihere would be a suitable mayoral candidate for a future mega Auckland city. I observed that would probably be one hat too many! After this heady mix I was ready for rugby league, not among the 5,000 at the Sikh Temple opening. In fact if this is the agenda of Auckland’s future mega mayor, JT definitely should not throw his hat in the race.

Auckland is an economic powerhouse. As I saw in one weekend there is an enormous amount of diverse cultural life. In the north we may not have the same level or variety of life, but we have a history worth promoting and celebrating.
An important person who contributed to our civic life in the north, attended many cultural events and moved freely between pakeha and Maori was Taru, otherwise known as Mr Gary Weed. Sadly, Gary lost his life in the domain of Tangaroa as he perished in a diving accident. He was a lively, humorous and challenging fellow politician. His bailiwick was the ratepayers and ours is perforce nationwide as well as the occasional local reminder.
Farewell e Taru, Gary.
Kua ngaro te takapu, kua hoki ki te kainga tupu.

The ocean-diving bird has gone. It has returned from whence it came.
ends

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 17, 2009 at 7:37pm

Living Streets Aotearoa e-bulletin
Contents
WALK2WORK WEDNESDAY MARCH 18
NATIONAL CYCLEWAY
FUNDING FOR PATHS
BUY LOCAL
DOUBLE THE FEET ON THE STREET
ANA CONFERENCE
WALK2WORK WEDNESDAY MARCH 18
Thousands of people across New Zealand will leave their cars at home on Wednesday and Walk2Work with friends, family and colleagues. Workers who walk all or part of the way to work are invited to call in to their local Walk2Work event between 7-9am, to register, collect their complimentary breakfast snack, be inspired by speakers, win spot prizes and potentially change their habits! For a list of events and locations, see www.livingstreets.org.nz Pass this information on to your workmates and friends!

NATIONAL CYCLEWAY

Living Streets has been working with the Cycling Advocates Network, the Hikurangi Foundation and other cycle and tourism organisations to look at developing a national cycle network, similar to the Sustrans National Cycle Network in the UK. The idea of developing a national cycleway was one of the initiatives which came out of the recent Jobs Summit, and the Ministry of Tourism has been asked to prepare a report. The Sustrans route monitoring report for 2007 shows that of the 354 million trips made on the network, 50% were on foot, mainly around urban areas. www.sustrans.org.uk

FUNDING FOR PATHS

NZTA was formed from Transit NZ and LTNZ, which had different rules for funding paths. Transit used to be able to 100% fund paths that provided alternative routes to the SH network. When people approached Transit staff about a path project Transit could correctly say that the path was not fundable if it was not located near a SH. At the same time LTNZ provided about 50% funding assistance for any other community paths used by commuters. NZTA is now working to ensure that staff are familiar with the entire funding picture (rather than just a small part). This may take time to filter through to all regions.
BUY LOCAL
A short paper "Setting Up Superstores and Climate Change" by Jean-Marie Beauvais describes the results of a study in France indicating that shopping at large, suburban 'superstores' consumes more than four times as much transportation energy and produces more than four times the carbon emissions as local grocery store shopping. http://www.vtpi.org/superstores.pdf

DOUBLE THE FEET ON THE STREET
Be part of the movement to encourage the development of walking-friendly communities where more people use their feet for everyday short journeys - join yourself and a friend up to Living Streets Aotearoa this month to be in the draw to win a bright blue Living Streets Tshirt! http://www.livingstreets.org.nz/shop.html

ANA CONFERENCE
The opening address at the Agencies for Nutrition Action conference in May 2009 will be Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole speaking on Priorities for Health Improvement: Nutrition and Activity. Details of the conference are at http://www.ana.org.nz/conference09.php



ABOUT LIVING STREETS AOTEAROA
Living Streets Aotearoa is the national organization promoting walking-friendly communities. You can find out more about us at www.livingstreets.org.nz.
We send these occasional e-bulletins to keep you informed because we understand you have an interest in walking. You can unsubscribe from future emails to this list: Please remove me from the Bulletin e-list


Living Streets Aotearoa
PO Box 25424
Wellington, WGN 6146
New Zealand

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 17, 2009 at 7:34pm

Te Tai Tokerau/Northland/Whangarei members got together on Sunday to meet and greet. We elected new chair and treasurer/secretary for TTT, and all agreed that the North needs people to take remits to conference in May. We will meet on the THIRD Sunday of each month for remainder of year somewhere in Mid North for next few months anyway. Shout out if you want to come along to the next one.

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 17, 2009 at 7:30pm

Greetings Kyle

You are so right - remit for conference - more training of dentists/therapists/hygienists with a bond to the provincial areas - pass this discussion on to the provincial group Kyle. If we need it then I can think of an area or two that would also benefit from this.

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 17, 2009 at 7:27pm

Kia ora koutou, I will attend these hui but it would be great to have some Labour support at this meetings.

Far North District Council wants to ensure that you are made aware of what Council is doing with Maori Representation:

Maori in the Far North district are asked to share their views about how they can become involved in local government decision-making. The hui are being spread throughout the district over the next three months and the table below indicates some of the dates we are proposing:

MARAE
DATE
Whitiora Marae, Te Tii
Tuesday, 24 March at
Mahi Maru Marae, Awanui
Thursday, 9 April
Waipuna Marae, Panguru
Wednesday, 22 April
Rawhiti Marae, Rawhiti
Wednesday, 20 May
Waiora Marae, Ngataki
Wednesday, 3 June
*Please note: these dates are subject to change at short notice.

The initiative comes from an earlier council meeting about non-electoral options for the involvement of Maori in local authority politics. At that meeting, the council reiterated its intention to call for improved interaction with Maori and asked staff to investigate non-electoral options for more involvement and engagement of Maori in council’s decision making processes.

Phill Grimshaw has stated that these Maori representation workshops were a first step in the process of getting feedback from Maori about how they saw their place in terms of their involvement in council business. “Maori have a valid contribution to make and the council has made it clear it wants their voices to be heard,” he said. “The hui will give us an opportunity to determine to what extent they wish to be part of the council’s decision making processes and how this can be achieved.”

The Itinerary table above will allow you to select a Hui that is convenient for you and Council encourages your participation. All Hui will commence at 9.30am. A dedicated page for Maori Representation will be posted on the Maori Development section of our website: www.fndc.govt.nz within the next week or so to keep you informed on any progress or in case of any last minute changes to Hui, therefore, please keep an eye on this page.

Additionally, feel free to pass this panui on to your networks as we would value your whakaaro at the Hui.

Mauri Ora,

Jacynthia Murphy
Strategic Plan Coordinator
District Plan & Maori Development
Ph: 0800 920 029
Ph: 09 405 2750 (local or mobile)
Extn: 6571

Comment by Tracy Dalton on March 15, 2009 at 10:02am

www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/business/2262350/Rod-Oram-ACC-the-political-claims-and-the-reality

oops did not get the link attached

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