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06 July 2006

MAYOR’S E-COLUMN

SOME POST-PLAN THOUGHTS

I often think that the Vision team and myself are thirty years too late.

That bold, creative and dynamic leadership was needed more in the 1970s than now, if this district was not to be sidelined from (and by) the rest of New Zealand.

That may be too harsh. Whatever might have gone before, Wanganui would probably still have frozen after the chill blast of ‘Rogernomics’ in the mid-1980s.  That event blasted Wanganui’s economy and its social structure.  Moutoa Gardens didn’t help, but it was Rogernomics that rooted Wanganui.

The farmers stopped spending, there were mass redundancies, government departments moved south and the middle-class went with them. Add the de-institutionalisation of Lake Alice and the conservative civic response, and it is little wonder that our population has declined over three successive censuses.

And not just Wanganui, but the region. West Coast North Island, as it used to be known has become the new West Coast. Just without the tourism.

Interestingly I’m not the only ‘outsider’ (and ex-MP) to have come to the same conclusion - at the void of leadership that followed. Former councilor John Lithgow was openly condemnatory of previous councils and their lack of foresight and insight.

That said, the past is irrelevant. It’s the ‘now’ that we’re dealing with.  And the one tenet we must reject is ‘conservatism’. The desire to stand still, and do nothing. Do that and Wanganui will no bigger than Hawera in twenty years, of less importance than Ohakune in a generation.

The Media Play A Role

Of course the media play a role in setting a civic atmosphere. Sometimes the ‘Wanganui Chronicle’ is too inert as a provincial cheerleader. It leads too little, and follows too much. It reflects a society that used to exist, but was swept away – at least politically – in 2004.

That’s fair enough, I suppose. After all, newspapers exist for one purpose, and one only. To make money. In the ‘Chronicle’s case to make as much profit out of Wanganui as it can, to repatriate to its Australian bosses.

Putting aside the disagreement between myself and editor John Maslin over fair comment and censorship, I’m often disappointed at the quality of reporting of council affairs.

In part, that is due to the lack of a regular council correspondent. In my short time as mayor, I’ve counted no less than seven (7) journos covering council meetings and business (Dave Laurence, Judith Lacy, Mary Bryan, Andrew Koubaridis, Belinda Feek, Merania Karauria and Sean Hoskins).

As a general rule, they have attended council meetings without sufficient background to ask the right questions, or even to know what is going on. Errors have accumulated– and more often than not been induced by a lack of prior knowledge and policy understanding.

The latest illustration, being the woeful misrepresentation of the council’s position on rural and community halls.  Was there an apology? Was there a correction? No. Being a journo means never saying sorry.

I must say that it’s been my experience that the younger the reporter, the more accurate the reporting. In which respect, I suspect that is not an uncommon experience in most provincial ‘papers throughout the country.

The Hospital Upgrade

In many respects, the announcement that the government is stumping up with $30 million towards the redevelopment of Wanganui hospital is great news. Quite apart from the boom that will be to local builders and contractors, it means that the substandard buildings housing A & E, and the Children’s Ward, can finally get a spruce up.

Yeah, but one must be a little cautious. The Devil will lie in the detail of this grant – and a smart man would bet upon service cuts to compensate. There are acknowledged conditions to this grant, but no-one is saying what they are.

Certainly the quality of Wanganui’s maternity services is a concern. There is no effective choice as lead maternity carers. It’s a midwife or nothing.  Even then there is a lack of midwives. Now, the only specialists are about to resign or reassign. 

I do not believe, with the current configuration, that the health board can offer a safe maternity service for other than low risk births. Increasing numbers of Wanganui women are already having their babies at Palmerston North. That trend can only continue.

The Ten Year Plan – My Work Is Done

I must admit to an enormous feeling of satisfaction last Thursday as I chaired he meeting that formally endorsed the Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) or Ten Year Plan. That document will guide Wanganui’s future for the next decade.

It was also the first Audit NZ-approved LTCCP that this council has produced. Unlike Horizons regional council, there was no ‘tag’. Our consultation was good, our figures correct, our assumptions approved. Great stuff.

When I stood for mayor, I publicly said it would take five years to change the corporate climate at council, effect a check upon rates and create the structures and policies to move Wanganui forward. I was wrong. It has taken just twenty months. What am I going to do for the next sixteen?

And it’s taken twenty months for the following reasons;

• Having a team, who have a publicly-approved set of policies, who

constitute the majority around the council table;

• Having the people of Wanganui make the priority decisions on capital

projects that council should pursue (eg Splash first, Sarjeant last);

• Having a rejuvenated and slim-line senior management team;
• Creating a clear set of policies and always setting the agenda rather

than reacting to events.

Already – I must confess – I’m looking at things we can do this term that I would have thought would take another term, or one after that. That includes the Heart of Wanganui project (the rejuvenation of the district’s cultural precinct), and
the further development of the riverfront.

Obviously I’m thankful that Wanganui voters delivered a Vision majority in 2004 and re-confirmed that majority – indeed added to it – at the by-election earlier this year.

For all the whingers and whiners, this is a council that has not simply a democratic mandate … but the will and the energy to enact it.  But then I love the critics too. I give their otherwise dull lives some meaning, and isn’t that what charity is all about?

Until next week … best wishes,

Michael Laws
Mayor