Giving the Manawatu Region a Leg Up (Satire)

Apparently there is a buzz going around in the Nation's Capitol that an investigation is underway to look at relocating the Capitol to a region that hasn't had catastrophic earthquake damage and likely not to  suffer any in the future.  There are three areas being looked at:

Palmerston North

Palmerston North

And

Palmerston North

So what about reality??  Wellington is prone to catastrophic earth movement and eventually even a quake centred elsewhere is dodgy, so not good.  Palmerston North gets other peoples quakes and in history those quakes have been few and far between, There is plenty of real estate to purchase and the infrastructure is well in place to handle the increase in populations and real estate at hand.  Editted to add - Manawatu is away from Tsunami issues.

It also means Members of Parliament and Civil servants have a 20 minute ride to Ohakea for ministerial duties on RNZAF aircraft.  It would also mean Palmy "International" Airport can be lengthened to cope with larger aircraft, and overseas travelers on  diplomatic service.  The bonus for  a dedicated airport is no bad weather in the Manawatu unlike Wellington's dodgy one.

Burning issues in the Manawatu (click here SH3 tunnel and Linton Bridge ) plus the capability to cater for larger populations need addressing but not as bad as Wellington's real estate worries and commutes.  Palmy is 10 minutes from one end to the other.

A bit of fun - what to build and call it??

Possibly:-

Rōpū whakahaere (Management and governance)

A suggestive pic:-

featuring:-

Ok ok reality says bullshit but there will be one day when thinking ahead is beneficially prudent.

Playing With Power - The Greedy Get Greedier

The Land of Plenty.  The Land of Milk and Honey.  The Land of Rising Prices.  A strong Economy.  Falling Unemployment.  It all looks rosy (except maybe the rising prices part).  And generally it is.  But what about those rising prices?  Nope not a myth, reality, and one area that really concerns me is Electricity.

50% of our power is Hydro Electric.  Cheap and generally reliable right?  Well yes, so you would think. But is it?  Ok it’s fair to say the other 50% is costly (Oil, Gas, Geothermal, Wind, other) and generally only applies to customers north of Lake Taupo.  So what of customers further south.  Well we obviously get our power from the National Grid and largely from across the Cook Strait and points south.  Yet for the second time in 4 months, the rate is going up.

I am supplied by Contact Energy and largely they are a steady reliable supplier.  But a few months back they upped the rate for power stating operational costs in Contact energy.  My power bill went from an average of $45 a month to $58 a month, a 30% rise in power costs.  Now I am informed it is going up again, and I’m not sure how that will affect my bill, but suffice to say it’s bound to be significant.  Is this fair?

Well if one reads their letter they sent their customers, one finds they are claiming Powerco, the electricity supplier, is passing on costs to retailers and accordingly prices are rising.  Yet nowhere on Powerco’s website does it say they are pushing costs up?  Even a quick look at Contact Energy’s website doesn’t mention the cost increase.  It’s fair to say, both seem to be trying to keep this under the radar.  But I will not.

The electricity sector is in a state of flux at the moment with the SOE sell offs.  If memory serves me right the sell offs were partly done to increase competition and perhaps lead to dropping of wholesale prices.  I remember when Telecom was sold off, (and other SOE’s) a lot of Telco prices increased as there was little or no competition.  The same could be said with Electricity wholesalers, there are few and they monopolise the market.

In a time where interest rates are low, wages even lower, and people genuinely struggling surely the government should be seen to be waving the big stick at electricity wholesalers (and retailers) and getting power prices down, not up.  Power is not a commodity, it is a necessity and if power companies want to play leech, they need to be reined in and soon.

I’d willingly boycott Contact Energy’s move, but regrettably I need their power. 


Editted to add on 8 March 2014

Have spoken to two friends with different power co's and their charges have increased too so not retailer issue but a wholesaler issue (PowerCo).  Open letter to PowerCo.  Why and what justification please?

Royal Commission of Inquiry - ACC

Over the past year or so, ACC have had a senior director sue a claimant over defamation, a client's details emailed to three services that had no dealings with that client, and now this latest fiasco.

ACC is a government department tasked with managing many facets where especially client information is confidential.  Yet in about one year, they have been far from confidential in dealing with their information.  A Royal Commission of Inquiry needs to be established to look into how ACC runs it's business, how information can be sent to the wrong poeple, and how ACC deals with the fallout, especially pertaining to those clients under the SCU whose lives are already a misery without having this hanging over their heads.

Like Pike River, Cave Creek and other accidents, the fallout is disastrous.  People are getting hurt and others are not guaranteed to be hurt either down-track, under the current ACC regime.  And it's costing the government.  Every time there is a glitch in ACC, ACC personnel and other workers in the industry of counselling and care face running up bills to compensate for these errors.  Clients are of course the worst affected, but the financial aspect of that area is murky, but it's fair to say that there is a monetary cost.  Yes, it costs the Government, and it costs the people who are under ACC.  And it's not good business practice.  ACC needs a huge overhaul, and maybe an injection of new staff.  The days of The Jobs For The Boys are long gone, yet government departments still operate on a Who You Know Not What You Know basis.

So If there is a Royal Commission of Inquiry, who gets investigated.  Well it starts at the top.  The Minister for ACC and his department heads all need to be made accountable.  Sure the Minister isn't directly to blame, but he does have the final say in who department heads are.  The SCU needs a shake up.  And it seems other department heads too need to be made accountable.  If it means hiring and firing, so be it.  Anything to ensure that the past years hiccups do not resurface ever again.