South D flooding is an emergency issue
Elation and cheering never expressed over a headline (ODT 30.1.25) before turned to disgust by the fourth column. Crs Vandervis and Garey, you have lost my vote.
Nothing but a few pence in the scheme of council spending spent on the South Dunedin flooding issue. Debt reduction does not come before people’s homes being inundated from fountains of stormwater and sewage bursting out of the road and racing into my property.
We have a broken-down piping system, some dating back to when the streets were first developed, which can’t cope with the volume of water being pushed down its pipes.
Repeated flooding issues not caused by storms or low-lying land but years of council inaction on addressing the problem in an area of Dunedin with low income levels and property values who nevertheless value their kingdoms and castles.
And a nine-year plan? Wake up. We need every dollar of rates not being used to maintain what we have poured into this issue. And, a slave driver on the engineers and related professionals who would be involved to get this fixed within three years. It is an emergency so treat it as such.
Hold DCC accountable
Yet again the ratepayers of this city are being prospectively forced to pay up for the failures of our councillors to administer the affairs of this city.
Our ODT relayed to its readers that rents in town are an average $600+ approximately, and they say that our rates may increase 10% per annum for the next three years.
This has a massive flow-on effect across our community to actually keep up with these demands when wages don't increase this much.
I predict commercial buildings losing tenants, people forced out of their rental homes and a rise in crime. Consecutive spendings on spurious projects inflame the ire of ratepayers as does the skyrocketing city debt levels which any accountant would warn against.
Why isn't the council being held accountable for their actions ?
Critic criticised
After criticising your editorial comment on the present Palestine/Israel conflict for being "short on much factual detail", M. W. Cowan (Letters ODT 27.1.25) then provides another 250 words of fact-free assertions on the virtues of the Israel Defence Force and the iniquities of the Palestinian resistance.
For a rather less partisan view of the conflict, as well as being a sombre warning from history, your readers would find it instructive to read the 1948 letter to the New York Times from Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and 26 other Jewish intellectuals and rabbis concerning the visit to the United States by Menachim Begin.
Einstein and his co-signatories warned that Begin’s Freedom Party was "closely akin in its organisation, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties."
They added: "The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine, bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a ‘Leader State’ is the goal."
I should add two points: first, Prof Einstein was invited to become the first president of the new state of Israel — an invitation which he declined.
Second, the attitudes and values of Begin live on today in the present prime minister of Israel.
Indeed, in 2014, Netanyahu publicly boasted that Begin was his "role model".
Tee up the golf tourism industry and let rip
Traditionally the start of a new year heralds in "State of the Nation" announcements. PM Chris Luxon's key focus in 2025 is economic growth .The establishment of a new government agency, Invest New Zealand, coupled with the appointment of Louise Upston as Minister of Tourism are a very good start.
Whilst global travel demand is exploding it is nearing full capacity in many markets. Major, and niche, tour operators are looking beyond traditional markets such as Europe. New Zealand on many counts is supremely well placed to benefit. With vision, courage, enthusiasm and urgency the potential for exponential economic growth, fuelled by tourism alone is literally off the planet.
The sucessful mix and linkage of targetted foreign investment, tourism, job creation and regional development is undeniable.
Some existing outstanding examples, which exemplify the above criteria include the magnificent Arrowtown-based Millbrook golf resort (Japanese owned), the home of the increasingly popular NZ Golf Open. Further examples include Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers golf resorts (American owned) and the recently completed spectacular Te Arai and Tara iti links golf complex near Mangawhai in Northland (American owner). These golf resorts have achieved international acclaim and are attracting global attention and patronage from the worldwide affluent golf community.
With committed government support and smart settings the opportunities just within the tourism space are enormous, so let's get on with it.
Moving along with the energy sector zeitgeist
Listening to Chloe Swarbrick spruiking the same old Green shibboleth about energy on Morning Report today was wearying to say the least.
Perhaps it’s time Swarbrick and her cohorts explained to New Zealanders that for the country to go fully electric the national grid will have to double (and that’s not taking into account the energy hungry AI, data centres etc) — especially the cost to them.
As most acknowledge, cheap, reliable energy is essential for any country to develop and attract investors — and you ain’t going to get that with the intermittent power from wind and sun.
Let’s take Britain as an example — as a result of its rush to net zero (yes, the Tories were as useless as Labour) the cost of power there has tripled since 2003, with the annual cost for a family of four coming in at $11,000 now. Wonder how many Kiwis could afford that, eh?
Oh, what if the Brits put the green energy stored in batteries on to the grid? Well, that would only supply 13 minutes at most for the country. To rely on wind and sun, Britain would need 10,000 times the current battery storage at a cost of 15 trillion quid (three times its GDP). Is that going to happen? Yeah, nah.
As for the tired old Green shibboleth that our trading partners won’t buy anything from us unless we go down their road to energy perdition, it’s about time Swarbrick and co looked around the world and saw what is going on. With Europe and Britain’s power costs triple that of the US (and therefore at a huge disadvantage for their industries), they might have a few other things on their mind than what a tiny country at the bottom of the world is doing energy wise.
Perhaps expecting the Greens to adapt their views on energy would be about the same as expecting them to be able to read a spreadsheet. Talk about being out of touch with the zeitgeist: if they ain’t capable of moving with it, it could move them.
[Abridged — length. Editor.]
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