### ODTOnline Tue, 12 Oct 2010
There’s a feeling of relief: Chin
By David Loughrey
Peter Chin may have lost the election but he appears to have rediscovered his sense of humour – and perhaps his joie de vivre – following Saturday’s election results. Dunedin’s outgoing mayor was yesterday clearly a happier man following the weight of office being lifted from his shoulders after six years in a job that involved “committing yourself completely to Dunedin”. And he took a parting shot at the candidates who ran negative campaigns “rubbishing” a city Mr Chin said had made considerable progress.
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### ODT Online Tue, 12 Oct 2010
Farry not expecting a stop to stadium
By Chris Morris
The ousting of Peter Chin as Dunedin mayor “doesn’t make sense”, but is unlikely to affect progress towards completing Forsyth Barr Stadium, Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry says.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Good to see Peter Chin adopt the attitude he has since being ousted from the Mayoralty, but the substance of the article and the attributed quotes within it made me wonder why he was standing again.
I get the feeling that for the last few years Mr Chin was always advocating for the council, to the citizens……when the official duty of the mayor is to do the exact opposite.
I once attended a professional development course over a day or two given by a guy that was one of the country’s most experienced Directors, and he said that the main job of a Chair of a Board (read Mayor) was to say “no” to the CEO.
His rationale was that it made the CEO go away and justify properly any suggestion that the CEO made. His experience suggested that most stupid ideas went away without any further discussion – only the good ones filtered through.
I get the clear impression that Peter Chin failed to do that and Harland effectively got whatever he wanted.
But Chin is now gone and it will be interesting to see just what evolves between the various factions round the City and how those factions come to grips with a new person at the helm.
This comment has been removed for moderation. -Eds
My apologies for overstepping any boundaries there. My source was the security company who fitted the building out for that purpose. Annoyed them at the time as much as it annoyed me when I heard about it. Again, apologies.
{We are intrigued. It is to be hoped a commercial lease is in place. -Eds}
My little bird suggests that an audit of current and past Property Dept management practices would be a Good Thing.
I have a suspicion that this is coming anyway, that we will see some action from the cost-saving working party after all and that there will be a top-to-bottom review of leases, “gentlemen’s agreements”, former employee consulting gigs, planning/resource consent processes and the like.
“the main job of a Chair of a Board (read Mayor) was to say “no” to the CEO.”
that is the singularly dumbest thing I have heard in a bloody long time – and I’m on twitter.
But that says so much about business in NZ, incredibly short sighted and old business models being perpetuated by such talk. I say old, because I can not for one minute think that anyone involved in innovation would say such a silly thing.
Paul, I agree – but bureaucracies are rarely about innovation, I say this having been in a few as no doubt you have. That bureaucracies might easily elect for change and innovation is a moot point. Think about University of Otago…
I’m watching POL with interest (see merger plans on hold for the next little while, and the ongoing top-down nightmare where little is allowed to generate up from the floor) – and DCC still thinks it’s OK to have major staff projects (eg harbourside, eg the spatial plan – and heaven knows what else) not involve councillors until the very last minute… for the final sign-off, having not been party to the process. Stinks.
People could look to Comalco or other workplaces… and won’t.
Former stadium mayor Peter Chin was showing some friends around the Octagon today. He seemed to be strutting about as though none of those passing would remember his involvement in the rorts which have ruined Dunedin’s future. But I couldn’t help notice he seemed a little jumpy, as though expecting someone to do just that. I really hope for any party concerned he is not signing agreements still.
I’d be happy if he took over the Chinese Garden, which is costing us $500k plus pa, lock, stock and barrel, and lived there within its walls. Hell, I’d even be happy for it to be renamed in his honour if it meant we could offload this particular loss making venture.
I pass there often and am underwhelmed by the foot traffic that doesn’t seem to go that way. Anyone noticed hordes of people visiting there? Honestly, I’m at a loss to know what the manager and her staff do all day. Time for scrutiny by the council?
Not sure where this should be but I see that our late Mayor Chin has been appointed by the Government to sit on this flag reconsideration committee. The concept of getting a bunch of people to sort out the design of a new flag and then run all sorts of polls to decide which new design is best and then go and have another poll to go with the new or stay with the old is bad enough – but always a good diversion for Teflon Donkey Jonkey, but God Almighty, look at the panel of assembled personalities. What will keep Chin awake long enough to sit through this?
Thanks Russell. The flag debate makes me cringe, more so now, given Key just might fast track the flag design (was it because Chin slept too much) to drape the coffins of our unfortunate war dead of Iraq on their homeward journey. PM Key isn’t above such things. A complete nutcase leading the country. Makes Bill English look like a knight in shining armour.
NZ Herald: Julie Christie and Beatrice Faumina to help decide NZ’s new flag
Flag Consideration Panel:
John Burrows (chair), former deputy chancellor, University of Canterbury
Kate de Goldi (deputy chair), writer
Julie Christie, reality television guru
Rod Drury, businessman
Lieutenant General Rhys Jones, former Defence Force chief
Nicky Bell, chief executive of ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi
Peter Chin, former Mayor of Dunedin
Stephen Jones, youth councillor
Malcolm Mulholland, academic
Hana O’Regan, Maori studies academic
Beatrice Faumina, sporting ‘legend’
Sir Brian Lochore, sporting ‘legend’
We could now just add our star to the Stars and Stripes.
Pity Key didn’t actually include at least one artist, his ad guy doesn’t count.
For the avoidance: “design by committee”.
This is a large group with little in common.
A total mistake.
Of all the unimportant things to raise into top spot in public consciousness! And there’s no doubt it’ll work like a dream, Key’s got it right about that. Another of those things that always generates masses of public excitement, like “Somewhere’s Got Talent” and the variations on “Big Brother” and other pseudo-reality shows with beatup emotion and successive eliminations, though apart from the occasional flurry there has been no serious demand for a new flag. However this is National’s losing term, unless they can pull a very photogenic rabbit out of the hat. And they’ve got some rather nasty projects on the go that would benefit from attention being diverted elsewhere.
That cunning partnership that would place NZ’s trade at the whim of multinationals to set the rules, and sue the very bone-marrow out of us if we don’t comply, for example.
And now the start of ugly suck-up motivated involvement in an unwinnable war against an amorphous enemy without formal command structure, united by fanaticism expressed in inventive forms or cruelty, that is as likely to strike in Tauranga by a solo IS sympathiser, as in the “correct” location.
No wonder John Key wants a long flag-replacing process with a committee comprising as many representatives of many sub-groups that many NZers can identify with and lobby, as possible. Come on folks, get involved! Watch one prototype after another being waved for you to opine about! Don’t look at what the other hand is doing.
It is a perfect diversionary tactic – Key is the master tactician. Everyone will be yapping about this bloody issue instead of looking for the ‘pea under the thimble’.
You’re probably right, Chin is known for his ability to cave when faced with rugby stuff, probably means we’ll get stuck with Key’s ISIS flag, and they’ll have to buy off the NZRU for a few million for the rights.
I was thinking that too – we seem to want to paint everything black – aircraft – boats – cricket caps – god, we are a witless bunch.
What’s wrong with black? I mean real black, obsidian black, black as Cull’s stare, just black. Seems appropriate to me. No washing, no ironing (creases wouldn’t show) covers funerals, budgets, invisible at night, won’t bother anyone when we win, looks good when we lose, what’s not to like? Want a contrast? Have a white pole. Job done. Who do I submit my consultant’s fee to?
God you are sharp today – Dave will certainly accept your consultant’s fee – he is good at that. Just tell him that Jonkey o.k.ed it. He would love that – just make sure it is twice the number you first thought about – and pass half to me for pissing in your pocket.
Perhaps an appropriate flag is white with a red SALE written on it. After all it appears that everything that isn’t bolted down and quite a bit that is bolted down is for sale to anybody who wishes to pop on down and acquire.
This could also form the basis of the country’s new coat of arms, with a shield in white with the red SALE on it, supported on the right by Tammy (Briscoes woman) and on the left by a Visa card (rampant). This all over the motto “I’m off to my other place in Hawaii”.
Whatever the possible motive for pushing this debate, I am all for changing our colonial flag. I don’t think it is a real representation of NZ. Same goes for the lookalike Australian flag. Though l realise why Kiwis want to be like Aussies! Maybe NZ could be the seventh state and the flag debate here becomes superfluous.
Peter I agree that it is approaching the time that NZ should consider a design for its flag that reflects its national identity as a separate sovereign nation. The argument about the ‘look-alike’ Aussie one is really beside the point. The Aussies will want to do this as well. It is pretty clear that the relevance of the old Union Flag of the UK is part of a now bygone age. It is even possible that the UK itself could find it obsolete. It came pretty close to that only a few months ago. And then there is the issue of the EU with its flag that could well supersede all those of the old Europe.
What bothers me is the way that we are being ‘pitchforked’ into it at the moment without what I consider to be mature debate. What we are seeing is a bunch of ideas being thrust forward based upon what I think to be ‘flavours of the month’ or rather personal agendas (like for example the All Blacks rugby one – god help us). What I would like to see is some reasoned discussion about our sovereignty and how this might be manifest in our national flag.
Instead we have John Key just saying ‘Oh and by the way, I think we will change the flag. It will be on the Agenda for – let me see, oh yes – one month before the next election. That would be rather timely I think.’
So yes I think that we need to do something sensible soon.
Peter, ‘wash your mouth out’. Why exactly do Kiwis want to be like Aussies? They strike me as being pretty similar as they/we are.
I don’t see anything wrong with acknowledging our origins in a corner of the flag, as it is. Can’t tell it from Australian one without looking carefully, but then it’s not as if I care.
What annoys me is that of all the things that NEED changing the flag is a hell of a long way down the list, or would be, if only it weren’t such a brilliant attention-getting distraction.
There’s money aplenty for the flag charade but not for the hospital – to mention only one, local, necessity.
Yacht races, rugby, greenwank – there’s no shortage of money for fripperies.
### ODT Online Fri, 27 Feb 2015
Chin hoping for ‘huge interest’ in flag debate
By Chris Morris
Mr Chin (73), Dunedin mayor from 2004-10, was yesterday named with 11 others – including prominent New Zealand businessmen, academics, sportsmen and military figures – to sit on the Flag Consideration Panel.
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● Binding referendum for NZ flag design.
● No binding referendum for sending NZ troops to Iraq.
See on ‘Campbell Live’ TV3 tonight a straw poll on the issue of a new flag was 84% against 16% for. Peter Chin’s got the huge interest but not necessarily the way he would have wished.
Great, thanks Calvin. See new post at https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/campbell-live-txt-poll-does-nz-need-a-new-flag/
A big thank you to lsis for probably discounting black and white as colours for a new flag.
ha ha Peter – but don’y hold your breath – F**wits rule.
I think that the current flag is a very useful reminder to those who think that we are ‘safe’ here in the South Pacific, and can get by with selling everything in sight to foreign powers while signing flabby treaties and maintaining a defence capability that is little more than a joke. Sure, said foreign powers are a long way away. But none of them are as far away as London, and what’s that in the corner of our flag? Hmmm!
Only one country in South East Asia/Oceania avoided the ‘free trade treaties’ to ‘establishment of commercial grievance by violation of treaties’ to ‘military intervention to rectify said grievance and support legally legitimate commercial interests’ to ‘full subjugation’ continuum in the period of European economic and military dominance in the nineteenth century. That country was Siam (Thailand), and it only did so by the skin of its teeth and much loss of territory – its history, and that of its less attentive neighbours whose rulers did not employ top legal advice on an ongoing basis makes for sobering reading.
So you think Peter Chin is going to listen to the NZ public on this flag issue. If he takes as much notice of public opinion on the flag issue, as he took notice of the Dunedin ratepayers opinion on the stadium issue then the democratic process won’t be part of his thinking.
I wonder if for John Key, given his commercial background, the flag change is not so much about something so esoteric as searching for national identity, but more about ‘rebranding’ for NZ exports.
He wouldn’t want to say so because that would sound so tacky and not intellectual enough for the history books.