Delta #EpicFail and Metiria Turei : How Could This Be?

Received from Christchurch Driver [CD]
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 at 11:44 p.m.

Readers, I can hear the rumblings already – is your correspondent so bereft of new information that he has to tailgate the exploding Turei benefit scandal to catch some attention ? Is this the equivalent of Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66, who started well but could only survive by making instrumental covers of Beatles’ hits? (I admit, Day Tripper is a particular favourite…)

Get in behind, readers. Have yourselves a draught of Bells, and let me untangle the web that starts with the inexplicable antics of Ms Turei.

Any sentient citizen must be, by now, aware that Ms Turei attempted to make political capital out of her long term benefit fraud last week to assist in marketing the Green Party’s new welfare policy. Sadly for Ms Turei, a thing called the internet means that her previous fictions about the circumstances around her early solo parent years are all easily discoverable, and the Whale Oil blog has done a telling summary of Ms Turei’s various mendacities. (Thanks Cameron).

Overwhelmingly, the Kiwiblog and other commentariat have excoriated Ms Turei’s inexplicable move, but again, Whale Oil offered the most penetrating analysis (and no, I am not a Whale Oil subscriber, or have ever been in contact with Cameron Slater…). Mr Slater made the interesting points, repeated by Barry Soper and others, that not only was Ms Turei guilty of benefit fraud, but also received a study grant as well. Ms Turei refused to name the father of her baby to WINZ, who has now been subsequently revealed as Paul Hartley, son of Ann Hartley, former Mayor of North Shore. Consequently, no child support has ever been received from Mr Hartley. Ms Turei confirmed that “Grandma” (Ms Hartley) provided support – very likely including financial support, which undoubtedly has not been declared.

One of the unfortunate unintended effects of the whole affair is that this will be red meat to many right wing types of a particular gender and particular demographic to start a predictable chorus of “Welfare Queens” abusing the system. Middle aged guys, this was old (and not true) even when Ronald Reagan used it to get elected in 1980. As noted in the comments below, the amount of white collar fraud that goes unprosecuted is about 30 times the estimated amount of benefit fraud, so to the white collar industries of accounting and law that seek to advise on the fine line between tax “minimisation” and tax “avoidance” : let those without sin cast the first stone.  

While all this is very interesting and will lead to the certain demise of Metiria Turei after the election, if not before as the Green’s poll numbers continue to stagnate or decline, the commentariat has missed the bigger issue which is “What Did The Law Society Know and What Did They Do About It ?”.

Ms Turei initially declined to say if the fraud was disclosed to the Law Society in her 1999 interview to determine if she was “a fit and proper person” to be admitted to the bar, but then decided immediately afterward that refusing to comment would put her on a par with Jonathan Coleman and Todd McLay, so confirmed on July 26 that she had been “upfront” to the Law Society, and there had been a “long conversation” about it.

What is fascinating about this, and an extreme concern for anyone who has had to rely on or transact with lawyers, is that the Law Society, the body tasked with determining who is a fit and proper person to become a lawyer – to uphold the law – then on Ms Turei’s version of events confirmed to Ms Turei that this dishonesty did not matter.  

Readers, I too spilt Bells all over the sofa when I read that the Law Society had known about this for nearly 20 years and been complicit in Ms Turei’s dishonesty. How could it be that the profession dedicated to upholding the law could decide that some didn’t apply to them ? Following on from this if the Law Society did not think it was relevant or significant that a prospective lawyer had engaged in several years’ worth of benefit fraud, then what is the situation regarding her first employer, Simpson Grierson (one of the largest law firms in the country). Either they were lied to about the fraud, or they also had a relaxed attitude towards employing law graduates indulging in benefit fraud.

As we have often remarked in the Delta Epic Fraud series, truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and the facts of the matter are that the Law Society have previously allowed struck-off lawyers with convictions resulting from dishonesty to be reinstated to the bar.

One such lawyer is one Chris Gilbert, upon whom the fortunes of the Christchurch City Council (and indirectly, the DCC), rest in terms of the liability for the Yaldhurst Noble subdivision debacle, in the latest litigation. In reinstating Mr Gilbert to the bar, the Law Society ignored the opposition of three lawyers and two branches of the Law Society, including the Otago branch, who said the gravity of the offending made him unsuitable for reinstatement. Mr Gilbert “misappropriated” $44,000 of client funds in 1987 and 1988. Compounding this, a few years later, Mr Gilbert appeared to think that the Society’s rules were all overrated anyway and proceeded to sign legal documents on the fiction that he was still in fact a lawyer ! Brandishing a wet bus ticket, the Law Society warned Mr Gilbert “there would be no third chances !”.

Readers, like you I regard law firms as a bunch of parasitic sharks, and yes there are plenty of law firms with lawyers you would cross the street to avoid. But Mr Gilbert is not one of those. Mr Gilbert….is the legal services manager at the Christchurch City Council and was offered a job by the CCC with full knowledge of his dishonesty. NZ Herald (2004)

Readers, two hands on the cup : The Christchurch City Council actually said that Mr Gilbert “was the best candidate for the job”. This was rather against the advice of the Waikato Law Society, where Mr Gilbert committed his first fraud: they said in an affidavit Mr Gilbert was not a “fit and proper person” to be a lawyer.

Now place the cup down – you won’t cope with this : The Law Society gave Mr Gilbert his “third chance” on the basis that he could only work for the CCC. In other words, he wasn’t allowed to act for private individuals who had the choice to take or leave his services and make complaints if warranted. Instead he could be responsible for issues involving huge amounts of ratepayer funds, because the Law Society appeared to think that position required a much lower standard of integrity.

Readers, why would the Christchurch City Council employ Mr Gilbert ? Readers, feel free to draw your own conclusions. The most incredible fact of this rather incredible tale is that Mr Gilbert was no short-term stopgap to tide the CCC over a tight staffing spot. Mr Gilbert has been the team leader of legal services at CCC for 13 years. He seems to be part of the institutional furniture, and appears to be indispensable.

Your correspondent is advised that in relation to the Noble Yaldhurst litigation, Mr Gilbert is not surprising the plaintiffs with bursts of even-handedness.  

This perhaps is one reason why the pace of the Christchurch rebuild is glacial – Minister Brownlee and the Government would be fully justified in having serious reservations about the competence of the Christchurch City Council, and not just in the building control division.

Readers, tonight’s conclusion is surprising – we as Dunedin ratepayers can look with relief at Mr Gilbert and know that within the DCC itself (although NOT Delta and Aurora) this would never occur under the present management.

[ends]  

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Welfare fraud targeted more than tax evasion
White collar criminals get a better deal than welfare fraudsters because the system is biased before they even get to the courts, a lawyer says. Research by Victoria University shows 10 times more welfare fraudsters were prosecuted than tax evaders even though tax evasion costs the economy 33 times more. The research shows tax evasion amounts to at least $1 billion a year compared with $30 million for welfare fraud, but the courts are much harsher in their treatment of welfare fraudsters. RNZ News (2016)

Disclaimer: The site owner is not responsible for the currency or accuracy of content of contributed comments; and the inclusion of the information provided does not imply endorsement by the site owner.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

 

Christchurch City Council : Highly Dubious Entity #YaldhurstSubdivision

Subject: Ongoing Property Dispute at Yaldhurst Subdivision

Christchurch City Council held a full council meeting on 27 July 2017.

Readers, the CCC meeting video of Agenda item 26, about Yaldhurst Subdivision, is recommended viewing/listening.

Legal advice to Council is given by Rob Goldsbury, CCC Head of Legal Services – an atrociously lacklustre, unjust and obstructive performance.

The Council stupidly steps itself into (again!) the Constructive Fraud Action being progressed at the Christchurch High Court by Residents/Caveators of the Yaldhurst Subdivision. Although, we see that Councillors supposedly have no idea they’re already in it up to their eyeballs through the actions of Council staff and issues of non-compliance. Interesting.

Christchurch City Council Published on Jul 26, 2017
Christchurch City Council VIDEO
27.07.17 – Item 26 – Yaldhurst Village Subdivision – Dedication of Road – Sir John McKenzie Avenue

The video continues at about 1:26 after a preliminary silence [muted blue screen] – keep watching. The quality of picture is poor throughout. The discomfort of those seen in the public gallery is most perceptible.

Meeting Agenda and Unconfirmed Minutes follow here below – minus Attachment A, Yaldhurst Village Lots 601,613 Plan.

The Council did not vote unanimously.

The Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board motion was lost.

With the second motion, in short, the Council resolved that Lots 601 (residential) and 613 (commercial) on LT 448725 will be dedicated under Section 349 of the Local Government Act 1974 as a road, in order for the road to vest.

The resolution goes against the Residents’ private property rights.

See the previous post to refresh on the Residents’ situation.

Note, by the votes for, the dishonesty and incompetence present.

Note, by the votes against, the integrity of those supporting the Community Board and members of their community: the private property owners (the Residents), in their protracted, brave and courageous fight against an unjust malevolent council staff working in cahoots with unscrupulous developers.

Vicki Buck is a class act.
Rob Goldsbury, an utterly shameful man.

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Christchurch City Council
Agenda

Notice of Meeting:
An ordinary meeting of the Christchurch City Council will be held on:

Date: Thursday 27 July 2017
Time: 10.05am
Venue: Council Chambers, Civic Offices,
53 Hereford Street, Christchurch

….

[agenda item]
Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board

26. Yaldhurst Village Subdivision – Dedication of Road – Sir John McKenzie Avenue ………. [page] 529

[the report]
Council
27 July 2017

Report from Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board  – 13 June 2017
 
26. Yaldhurst Village Subdivision – Dedication of Road – Sir John McKenzie Avenue
Reference: 17/733313
Contact: Richard Holland richard.holland@ccc.govt.nz 941 8690
 
Note that this report was left to lie on the table at the Council meeting on 6 July 2017.
 
1. Staff Recommendations
 
That the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board recommend to the Council:

1. That Lots 601 (residential) and 613 (commercial) on LT 448725 will be dedicated under Section 349 of the Local Government Act 1974 as a road, in order for the road to vest.

2. Note that a Deed of Indemnity will be executed by Infinity Yaldhurst Limited which will indemnify and keep indemnified the Council from all actions, proceedings and claims made by any land owner in relation to the Council accepting the dedication of Lots 601 and 613 on LT 448725, as road.

3. Also note that the Council shall not be required to issue a Section 224(c) Certificate under the Resource Management Act 1991 in respect to Lots 601 and 613 on LT 448725 until all the safety audit requirements as specified by the Council, and included in the Variations of the subdivision consent, have been physically built to the Council’s satisfaction.

4. That the General Manager City Services be delegated authority to negotiate and enter into on behalf of the Council, such documentation required to implement the dedication.
 
2. Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board Recommendation to Council
 
Part A

That the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board recommend to the Council:

1. Option 2 of the staff report, namely, That the Council not agree to a dedication process and inform Infinity Yaldhurst Limited to pursue the matter through the Courts in accordance with the Property Law Act.
 
2. That the Council agree to meet with the adjoining property owners to discuss options on a way forward regarding the Yaldhurst Village Subdivision.
 
Vicki Buck and Anne Galloway requested that their votes against the above decision, be recorded.
 
Attachments
There are no attachments for this report.

Cats —or, Infrastructure spending, Council debt, and Disenfranchisement of Ratepayers

Council cat squad checking rego fees [supplied]

After the great floods, the common affliction amongst leaders, “water on the brain”.

█ The ‘thinking’ – DCC cat control remit for LGNZ AGM

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At Twitter:

Warming: The "cat rangers" are coming – if Local Govt NZ President & Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull has his way (Video) https://t.co/VHyv1Ns2sy

— Dave Goosselink (@davedunedin) July 26, 2017

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“There may be issues with cats but they also serve a useful purpose in controlling pests. The cat population doubled to two at my place last year, and we have more tui and bellbirds around than ever, as well as visits by kereru and eastern rosellas and fantails and waxeyes. The cats occasionally catch a bird but most often it is a sparrow or a thrush. But it looks like the Dunedin council and some others are keen on requiring the herding of cats. They kept as quiet as they could on cats during the local body elections, and now mid term they try to foist it on the public. Devious.” –Pete George at YourNZ

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Councils will now lobby the government to finish its National Cat Management strategy.

### radionz.co.nz 6:05 pm on 25 July 2017
RNZ News
Councils seek greater powers to control cats
By Michael Cropp – Wellington Local Government Reporter
The country’s councils are calling on the government to give them extra powers to protect wildlife from cats including microchipping, de-sexing and registration. Local bodies have the power to control dogs and their behaviour, but they only have jurisdiction over cats when they become a health risk. While the remit presented by Dunedin City Council at the meeting acknowledged the companion role of animals, it noted cats are a danger to wildlife. […] The controversial remit scraped through with just 51 percent of the vote at the Local Government New Zealand annual general meeting.
….Auckland mayor Phil Goff said his council abstained from the vote because it was not sure what it would mean for the 500,000 cats in the country’s largest city. “We are in favour of practical measures to protect native birdlife …. We’re not in favour of bureaucratic measures that might involve millions of dollars of council time and energy but doesn’t achieve the objectives that we set out to achieve,” Mr Goff said.
Read more

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More about ‘LGNZ The Blight’:

Local Government New Zealand – Media Release
Local government to debate four remits and elect new President at AGM
News type: National news | Published: 21 July 2017
The local government sector will voted on four issues when it gathers for its annual AGM in Auckland on Tuesday 25 July. There is a focus on litter legislation, local government funding, cat management and health in this year’s remits. The AGM follows this year’s LGNZ Conference, when over 600 delegates from local government and its stakeholders, industry and community will gather in Auckland for the two day event [23-25 July]. The theme of this year’s conference is Creating pathways to 2050: Liveable spaces and loveable places. Remits are voted on in a secret ballot and if passed will become official policy and be actioned by Local Government New Zealand. Local government will also be voting for a new LGNZ President to replace Lawrence Yule, who steps down after nine years in the role.
….National legislation to manage cats
The third remit was proposed by Dunedin City Council and asks that LGNZ lobby the Government to take legislative action as a matter of urgency to develop national legislation includes provision for cost recovery for cat management.
Throughout New Zealand councils are tasked with trying to promote responsible cat ownership and reduce their environmental impact on wildlife, including native birds and geckos.  Yet, territorial authority’s powers for cats are for minimising the impact on people’s health and wellbeing, and regional councils’ powers are restricted to destruction of feral cats as pests.  The remit seeks the protection of our wildlife and native species by seeking regulatory powers for cat control, including cat identification, cat de-sexing and responsible cat ownership.
….The LGNZ AGM is open to members only. Following the meeting, LGNZ will advise of the outcomes of all votes.
Read more

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Cat rangers and collars with bells on are some of the ideas Dunedin City Council wants to lobby Government for.

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated at 14:28, July 10 2017
Cat control: many Kiwi councils ready to lobby for national rules
By Libby Wilson
Councils around the country are looking to band together to rein in roaming moggies. Dunedin City Council has suggested its colleagues help it push the Government for national rules that could include cat rangers and shutting cats in overnight. Seven other councils around the country have given the idea, and its environmental focus, their backing ahead of a July vote at the Local Government New Zealand annual meeting.
Read more

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‘Vacuum of cat management policy and services in Dunedin’, local submission says.

### nzherald.co.nz 29 Jun, 2017 7:02am
Dunedin council proposes registration of cats in New Zealand
A Dunedin proposal that could result in the registration of cats in New Zealand will be discussed nationally. The proposal from the Dunedin City Council, in consultation with seven other councils, will next month go to a Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) vote. If it is successful, LGNZ would make it a policy, and begin lobbying the Government to have it made law. The proposal could see the Government called upon to develop legislation for cats similar to the Dog Control Act. It already has the support of the Otago Regional Council, one of 78 councils which will vote on the idea.
Read more

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### ODT Online Wed, 17 May 2017
DCC seeks support for cat control
The Dunedin City Council will seek support from other New Zealand councils to gain greater control of cat management. If additional support from councils was gained, a remit would ask Local Government New Zealand to call upon the Government to give councils statutory power to control cats. The DCC was researching a Wellington City Council bylaw on microchipping cats. However, the current bylaw could not be enforced by non-compliance fees. Cat management would focus on the control of wild cats.
Link

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S T O P ● P R E S S

At Facebook:

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Related Posts and Comments:
26.7.17 RNZ Morning Report : Guyon Espiner sticks claws in Cat Cull & Curfews
25.7.17 To borrow from Stevie Smith : ‘the truth is I think he was already stuck’
22.7.17 Regional state of emergency lifted in Otago (incl Dunedin & Waitaki)
21.7.17 Rainy Day reading —The Spinoff : Ministry of Transport fraud case
21.7.17 DCC ORC : Heavy rain warnings preparations #PublicNotice
1.7.17 LGNZ, don’t wish ‘his lordship’ on New Zealand #VoteRachelReese
3.6.17 ODT updates mayoral vehicle serious injury crash information
24.4.17 LGOIMA vehicle (DCC) : Hyundai Santa Fe (2016) written off Jan 2017
10.12.16 Oh christ ! [LGNZ bureaucratic dopefest]
21.7.15 Dunedin to host LGNZ 2016 conference —FFS TIME TO TAKE IT OUT
21.5.15 DCC and LGNZ, total losers
2.2.15 LGNZ run by Mad Rooster Yule, end of story
10.10.14 Cull consorts with losers at LGNZ
26.6.14 LGNZ #blaggardliars

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

RNZ Morning Report : Guyon Espiner sticks claws in Cat Cull & Curfews

*Guffaw – [got calls about this one] someone fell in a hole….

On Morning Report this morning delighted listeners heard Guyon Espiner savage and purrfectly upstage ‘Cull The President’ on the serious issue of Cat Curfews. Haahaaa!

Big Ups for Guyon !!

### radionz.co.nz Wed, 26 Jul 2017
From Morning Report, 8:39 am today
Councils want to control your cat
Dunedin’s Mayor Dave Cull says the measures like microchipping, de-sexing, and registering cats would reduce the risk to wildlife.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (6’24”)

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Similar poses

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Supplementary Question.
Directed to our Mayor of Climate Change : Do cats come down in the rain, too.

Related Post:
25.7.17 To borrow from Stevie Smith : ‘the truth is I think he was already stuck’

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

DCC Proposed Camping Control Bylaw 2017 : Public Consultation

The camping control bylaw consultation process was publicly notified on Saturday, 22 July 2017, in the Otago Daily Times.

We have been following the nightmare tale of freedom campers at Warrington Domain —the council did not enforce its existing Bylaw 23 last summer. Local residents were no longer able to use the messed up, vehicle covered village green for pleasure and recreation. Instead, DCC had allowed the whole domain to be turned into a muddy rutted car park. Over summer 1000s of freeloading campers were subsidised by Dunedin ratepayers at roughly $10.00 per head per night. Disgraceful. An appalling and gutless lack of care and management shown by the council.

AFTER ALL THIS . . . .
It is a pleasure to note (finally, yes!) that DCC’s preferred option for bylaw adoption is sensible and workable. Please support this option.

There are 3 options to choose from.

█ The best option is DCC’s preferred option : a ban on people sleeping in cars and restricting freedom camping to self-contained campervans only.

This is the only responsible option – it will reduce camping issues at domain grounds, such as Warrington and Ocean View.

The other 2 options are messy, they require more work and will not be easy to enforce or manage.

█ Please fill in the form at the link below and select:
– Option 1. “Limit freedom camping to certified self contained vehicles only”.

Warrington stakeholders, in particular, see no reason to comment on the “criteria to apply to sites” questions. Just leave them blank.

They recommend you note the following in the Comments section:
– Area at Warrington for certified campers to be limited in area to accommodate maximum 10 vehicles per night.
– No non-self-contained vehicles.
– No freedom camping anywhere else in Warrington other than a small designated area in the domain.

█ Link to the online submission form:
http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/online-forms/proposed-camping-control-bylaw-2017

Please complete the form and share this information with friends and colleagues.

At last DCC has done something right by preferring Option 1.

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DUNEDIN CITY COUNCIL

Proposed Camping Control Bylaw 2017
Closes: 09/08/2017

DCC is asking the community for feedback on a proposed change to freedom camping in the Dunedin area. They would like your views on whether DCC should continue to provide freedom camping for both certified self-contained vehicles and non-certified self-contained vehicles.

The Statement of Proposal outlines changing the current bylaw to provide camping areas for certified self-contained vehicles only.

Two other options have also been considered and these are:
– to continue to provide for both certified self-contained vehicles and non-certified self-contained vehicles
– to provide extra areas for non-certified self-contained vehicles based on a set of criteria.

The proposed change is in response to the impacts of overcrowding at the two existing unrestricted camping areas at Warrington and Ocean View, and because of changes to the current standard for certified self-contained vehicles.

Freedom camping throughout Dunedin is very popular, especially between November and May. The focus of this bylaw review is to make the bylaw more robust and workable, based on two seasons’ worth of feedback and observation.

Following community feedback and hearings, the Council will consider the submissions and decide on any changes. DCC hopes to have the new bylaw in place in October/November.

█ Feedback closes 5pm 9 August 2017

Consultation documents:

Proposed Camping Control Bylaw – Public Notice (PDF, 123.4 KB)
This document is a pdf copy of the Public Notice for the Proposed Camping Control Bylaw 2017 consultation

Proposed Camping Control Bylaw – Statement of proposal (PDF, 216.0 KB)
This is a pdf copy of the Proposed Camping Control Bylaw 2017 Statement of Proposal

Part 23 Dunedin City – Proposed Camping Control Bylaw (PDF, 1.4 MB)
This is a pdf copy of the Proposed Camping Control Bylaw

23. Camping Control Bylaw
This is a pdf copy of the current Camping Control Bylaw 2015

Proposed Camping Control Bylaw Feedback form (PDF, 394.9 KB)
This pdf can be downloaded and completed to provide feedback to the Proposed Camping Control Bylaw consultation

Consultation details:

Closing date: 09/08/2017
Contact person: Ashley Reid
█ Public feedback: Online submission form

Email to – camping.bylaw@dcc.govt.nz
Post to – Dunedin City Council, PO Box 5045, Moray Place, Dunedin 9058. Attention: Proposed Camping Control Bylaw
Hand deliver to – Dunedin City Council Customer Service Centre, 50 The Octagon, Dunedin. Attention: Proposed Camping Control Bylaw

DCC Link

ENDS

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

To borrow from Stevie Smith : ‘the truth is I think he was already stuck’

At Facebook:

█ LGNZ – The New Zealand Ratepayers Blight

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The Guardian : Books
Saturday 7 March 2009 00.01 GMT
Author, author: Persons from Porlock
Hilary Mantel on literature’s great interruptions

Most readers (though perhaps not most hairdressers) know how Coleridge, waking from what we take to be an opium-induced slumber, scribbled down some lines of the poem he’d been composing in his sleep, but was interrupted “by a person on business from Porlock”; when he returned to work, “Kubla Khan” had evaporated, he said, except for “some eight or ten scattered lines and images”. Ever since this mishap in 1797, writers have grumbled about the crass interrupters who wreck their inspiration; they probably grumbled before, but they didn’t have a name for the phenomenon. No one has ever identified the nature of the Person’s business. Some believe it was Coleridge’s dealer dropping by with his narcotics supplies, in which case it was doubly ungrateful of him to complain. Thomas de Quincey is said to have originated this theory, which I like very much; I came across it on the internet, which is the same as saying “I read it in the Beano.”

Stevie Smith had Coleridge bang to rights:

Coleridge received the Person from Porlock   
And ever after called him a curse,
Then why did he hurry to let him in?   
He could have hid in the house.

In excerpt, Stevie Smith’s poem ‘Thoughts about the Person from Porlock’ continues….

/ He was weeping and wailing: I am finished, finished,   
I shall never write another word of it,
When along comes the Person from Porlock
And takes the blame for it.

It was not right, it was wrong,   
But often we all do wrong.

/ I long for the Person from Porlock
To bring my thoughts to an end,
I am becoming impatient to see him
I think of him as a friend,

/ I felicitate the people who have a Person from Porlock   
To break up everything and throw it away
Because then there will be nothing to keep them   
And they need not stay.

*

Why do they grumble so much?
He comes like a benison
They should be glad he has not forgotten them
They might have had to go on.

*

These thoughts are depressing I know. They are depressing,   
I wish I was more cheerful, it is more pleasant,
Also it is a duty, we should smile as well as submitting   
To the purpose of One Above who is experimenting
With various mixtures of human character which goes best,   
All is interesting for him it is exciting, but not for us.   
There I go again. Smile, smile, and get some work to do
Then you will be practically unconscious without positively having to go.

The full poem is published in The New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1988); reproduced online by the Poetry Foundation (United States).

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*The Beano is the longest running British children’s comic, published by DC Thomson. The comic first appeared on 30 July 1938, and was published weekly.

[dcthomson.co.uk]

Regional state of emergency lifted in Otago (incl Dunedin & Waitaki)

Otago’s state of emergency has been lifted.
Emergency Management Otago this morning lifted the state of emergency which existed since deluges and heavy wind battered Otago’s eastern coast over the weekend. The region has now officially entered a recovery phase with teams moving on to assessing the damage and checking on the needs of those affected by the devastating floods. Emergency Management Otago group controller Chris Hawker, in Dunedin, said the move towards recovery did not signal any reduction in effort.

● Dunedin City Council (03) 477-4000
● Federated Farmers 0800 FARMING (0800 327 646)
● Otago Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254
● http://www.rural-support.org.nz

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DUNEDIN CITY COUNCIL

Dunedin July Severe Weather update
10.45am Monday 24 July 2017

State of Emergency lifted

The Dunedin State of Emergency was lifted at 9am today. Under the Civil Defence Emergency Act 2002 we are now operating under a Notice of Local Transition Period as we move into the recovery phase.
The transition period is in force for 28 days (expires 9am 21 August) unless extended or ended earlier. The notice still gives the local authority powers to carry out essential emergency-related work.
More information about the work happening as part of the recovery phase will be provided today. The work will be led by Dunedin City Council Recovery Manager Simon Pickford.

Evacuation map – Upper Taieri Pond (PDF, 3.3 MB)
Mill Creek ponding area (PDF, 2.3 MB)

██████ DCC TWITTER FEED AUTOMATICALLY UPDATING

Tweets by DnCityCouncil

Rainy Day reading —The Spinoff : Ministry of Transport fraud case

The ever-deepening storm centred on the Joanne Harrison fraud case just became a hurricane. Yesterday’s State Services Commission investigation report is likely to trigger a new chain of events that could extend well beyond embattled Auditor General Martin Matthews, writes Peter Newport

### thespinoff.co.nz July 21, 2017
Politics
The Ministry of Transport fraud case: Why the rot goes deeper than Joanne Harrison
By Peter Newport | Contributing writer
The State Services Commission investigation, published yesterday, makes one thing very clear: Joanne Harrison influenced the exit of four fellow Ministry of Transport employees who tried to tell their bosses that she was a fraudster. She managed to hire friends and steal over $700,000 from the ministry despite numerous staff attempting to call attention to her actions. This all happened while she was reporting directly to then-chief executive Martin Matthews, who is now our auditor general – albeit on temporary leave. The Commission has now apologised and is offering compensation to those former staff members. Its report also highlights many other issues at the Ministry, arguing that the 17-year-old legislation that covers whistleblowers needs to be changed and improved.

A second investigation, into whether Martin Matthews is a suitable person to continue as auditor general, is due from Sir Maarten Wevers in the coming days. Matthews is currently constructing his response to the unpublished, but complete, Wevers investigation. He has been given until the end of this week to complete it.

The Harrison case has some similar dynamics to the Todd Barclay drama. It’s become less about the initial problem than how it was handled. Who told the truth and who tried to obscure or even bury the truth. The difference with the Harrison situation is that she is now in jail and the truth is coming out – fast.

The Spinoff has been looking at exactly who did what, and when. That job has been made easier by a new, recent MOT whistle-blower who has produced and provided to us a detailed timeline noting all the evidence, which we publish here, utilising material released by the Ministry of Transport and available to view here. The same whistle-blower has shared a bizarre insight into Martin Matthews’ statements during his time at the Ministry of Transport.

But first, a quick tour of the jigsaw puzzle of documents that reveal a picture of Martin Matthews being given not clues, or hints, but what appear to be multiple solid facts that highlighted Joanne Harrison as a Grade A con artist and thief.
Read more

Founded in 2014, The Spinoff is New Zealand’s fastest growing media startup, amassing a monthly New Zealand audience of over 500,000 in less than three years.
We’ve assembled a team of agenda-setting journalists and critics, working across text, audio and video to create a true 21st century media brand. In just two years, The Spinoff has been nominated for 24 Canon awards, winning six. Our growth has been driven by a creative editorial style and innovative business model, emphasising long-term relationships with like-minded brands and a close connection with a young, educated and urban audience. Duncan Greive won both NZ Marketing Magazine‘s Editor of the Year as well as the People’s Choice title for Editor and Media Visionary in their media issue, July 2017. The Spinoff also claimed the title for Digital Media Brand of the Year as well as the People’s Choice title for the same award.

****

Comment received from russandbev
2017/07/21 at 10:52 am

The recent revelations about what happened to the whistleblowers in the Ministry of Transport have, I’d suggest, application in Dunedin. Think of the parallels. In the MoT case a manipulative person with a barely-hidden track record of fraud and vindictiveness as well as a well developed sense of entitlement goes about systematically defrauding a government department of close on 3/4 million dollars. Not through some incredibly complex fraud, but one of simply creating business that didn’t exist and creating invoices from them for services that were never provided. Not exactly something that would take a lot to investigate.

Whistleblowers blow the alarm whistles to their managers and nothing happens and the further up the chain the questions were asked, the more dismissive the denials became. Meantime the fraudster moves against the whistleblowers. The Head of the Ministry moves on to even more wondrous things as Auditor General (is that ironic or is that ironic?) and the Minister dismisses all suggestions of wrong-doing. Even the Speaker of the House who employs the Auditor General doesn’t want to get involved.

Now found that the whistleblowers were entirely vindicated by their concerns and they get private and public apologies and a confidential settlement to, in part, recompense them for their treatment by both a fraudster and by management and governance failures. The Protected Disclosures Act [2000] is supposed to protect whistleblowers in BOTH public and private sectors.

Now, I don’t think anyone is suggesting fraud in the case of Aurora/Delta and that should be made plain. However look at the track record of these companies. A fearful record of stupid property speculation costing many many millions which is still going on thanks to Yaldhurst. A willingness to go along with borrowing to supply dividends to the DCHL and the DCC. Decades of ignoring maintenance on the Aurora network closely linked to the governance requirements to minimise costs, maximise profits and supply dividends to build vanity projects by the owners and now the spendup of northwards of 3/4 billion dollars on urgent maintenance bought about these years of neglect.

And then think of the years and layers of denials that these things happened over. When Richard Healey found he could no longer keep working in the company because of all that was being hidden, he gets vilified by EVERYONE that should have listened. EVERYONE is in denial including his past Managers who continued to receive their grossly inflated salaries and those in governance – many of whom refused to even sit down with him and discuss his concerns.

Am I the only one to see the parallels in how a Ministry or a City company deals with whistleblowers? I wonder if we will ever see similar end results in the case of Richard Healey?

{Link added. -Eds}

—

Reply from Elizabeth
2017/07/21 at 1:02 pm

Not involving Aurora:

Charges of Constructive Fraud have been brought, by joinder, against Delta Utility Services Ltd in the Christchurch High Court by the caveators (original property owners of the Noble Subdivision) at Yaldhurst. The case proceeds.

****

[decisionmaker.co.nz] formatted by whatifdunedin

█ Transparency International New Zealand
http://www.transparency.org.nz/

—

Related Posts and Comments:
19.7.17 Southern Police : Nothing changed since Tom Lewis wrote Coverups & Copouts
18.7.17 Delta | Infinity | CCC staff collude to defeat Yaldhurst residents (again)
23.5.17 Topical debates on Corruption in New Zealand
22.2.17 Some Councils/CCOs get cleanup from FRAUD and CORRUPTION #NotAll
9.12.16 Auckland corruption charges proved —ring any bells? #South
28.1.16 New Zealand local government T-shirt #haze #corruption
20.9.15 Corruption serious threat to New Zealand #CAANZ
14.9.15 Screening tonight: Paradigm Episode 2! Local Government Corruption in NZ #Sky #YouTube
23.7.15 Publicise: laudafinem.org
13.5.14 Stuff: Colin Espiner usefully defines Corruption

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

DCC ORC : Heavy rain warnings preparations #PublicNotice

See new post : Regional state of emergency declared in Otago in support of Dunedin & Waitaki

██████ DCC TWITTER FEED AUTOMATICALLY UPDATING

Tweets by DnCityCouncil

****

A regional state of emergency has been declared in Otago in support of Dunedin and Waitaki. Updates at https://t.co/JrP2YPcwHt pic.twitter.com/Hj0RihRd6K

— MCDEM (@NZcivildefence) July 21, 2017

(sp) Oturehua, Ida Valley, Central Otago

A state of local emergency has been declared in Dunedin in response to issues arising from the heavy rain. Follow @DnEmergency for updates.

— MCDEM (@NZcivildefence) July 21, 2017

A state of local emergency has been declared in Timaru due to significant rainfall in low-lying areas. More info at https://t.co/rwPajVeDZu

— MCDEM (@NZcivildefence) July 21, 2017

****

At Facebook:

### ODT Online Fri, 21 Jul 2017
Storm hits: what you need to know

Oamaru
Oamaru and surrounds are bearing the brunt of the storm, with widespread surface flooding and some homes flooded.

Mosgiel
There is surface flooding in Mosgiel, which is being closely monitored.

Sandbags
Mosgiel people concerned about rising water can access sandbags and sand from the Memorial Park car park beside the stadium/Mosgiel Memorial Gymnasium.
Sandbags are also available in South Dunedin at the car park behind St Clair Tennis Club, Victoria Road.
Where possible, people should bring a shovel to fill the bags, although contractors are available on-site at both locations to assist with filling and loading.

Information centres
As a precaution the council has opened information centres in South Dunedin, in The Mercy Room, Catholic Social Services, 42 Macandrew Rd, and at Mosgiel Fire Station Theatre, 3 Cargill St.

Freedom Campers
Due to the weather the Dunedin City Council recommends all freedom campers find alternative accommodation rather than staying at either of the council’s two freedom camping sites tonight.

Roads
NZ Transport Agency has issued road warnings for surface water and flooding across Otago, including SH1 from Waipahi to Waitaki Bridge.
Warnings are also in place for SH88 from Dunedin to Port Chalmers, SH 87 from Kyeburn to Outram.
SH83 from Pukeuri to Duntroon is also affected by flooding and is closed between Gray Rd And Horse Gully Rd.
In Canterbury SH 82 Waimate To Kurow is closed.
SH1 is now closed between Pukeuri to Morven

Rivers
The Kakanui, Shag and Taieri Rivers, the Silver Stream, Water of Leith and the Lindsay Creek are all rising steadily.

Flights cancelled
Flights to and from Dunedin Airport have been cancelled this afternoon.
The cancelled flights include Air New Zealand flights to and from Auckland and Christchurch.
The Jetstar flight from Dunedin to Auckland at 4.15pm has been cancelled.
Air New Zealand is advising customers booked to travel to and from Dunedin to consult the arrivals and departures information on our website here for up to date schedule information.

Sports grounds
The Dunedin City Council has closed all sports grounds for the weekend because of the weather.
The club rugby semi-finals may still go ahead at Hancock Park on Saturday depending on the weather. The decision will be made by the Otago Rugby Football Union.

Power cuts
There are reports of power cuts in Oamaru. In Dunedin power has been cut to about 100 customers in Green Island, Fairfield and Abbotsford suburbs of Dunedin after a power line came down.
Aurora Energy says it has a response crew working to fix the fault and power was expected to be restored by 5pm.

General preparedness
The Dunedin City Council is encouraging all residents and businesses across the city to make their own preparations.
Residents in low-lying areas who feel concerned should make plans to self-evacuate themselves to stay with friends or family who live on higher ground should it be required later on.
Check on neighbours, particularly if they are vulnerable.
Check spoutings and drainage channels for blockages and clear them if necessary
If your basement is prone to flooding lift items that could be damaged by water off the floor. Be sure garden sprays and other chemicals won’t be affected
Check grates near your house for blockages and keep them clear of leaves and other debris to avoid water building up and affecting your property.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/storm-hits-what-you-need-know

Fletcher Building subject to investigation by NZX

### tvnz.co.nz 11:54am
1 News
Source: NZN
Fletcher Building to be investigated by NZX as company announces much-reduced earnings
The New Zealand stock exchange says it will be investigating Fletcher Building’s additional profit warning for the year ended June 30 and the departure of chief executive and managing director Mark Adamson.
“NZX will be making inquiries into today’s disclosures, given FBU’s continuous disclosure obligations under the listing rules,” the NZX Head of Market Supervision Joost van Amelsfort said in a release.
Separately – in accordance with NZX’s routine surveillance processes – trading ahead of today’s announcement would be assessed in detail, it said.
That would be on top of NZX’s ongoing investigation into the disclosure of FBU’s previous earnings downgrade in March 2017,” it said.
Read more

****

### interest.co.nz
Posted in Property July 20, 2017 – 09:13am
Fletcher Building has announced the immediate departure of chief executive Mark Adamson and says operating earings this year will be around $100 million less than previously indicated
By David Hargreaves
Construction giant Fletcher Building says chief executive Mark Adamson is leaving immediately, while the company’s now forecasting operating earnings of around $100 million less than its last forecast.
Additionally, the company says it’s writing down the value of two business units by about $220 million. This will not be a ‘cash’ loss per se, but will carve about 3% off the value of the company’s assets.
The share price fell – down about 8.5% to $7.40.
….The $220 million write-down relates to the Iplex Australia and Tradelink subsidiaries.
Fletcher indicated that most of the reduced earnings forecast would come through two major projects: “A major project subject to previous write-downs, which has required an increase in project resourcing and therefore cost as it nears completion,” and “a second major project where construction timelines and the likely completion date have been extended”.
This is the third major profit warning the company has issued this year. After the last one in March it was speculated – and never denied by the company – that the two projects causing the biggest problems were Government projects; namely the new Sky City International Convention Centre in Auckland and the new Justice and Emergency precinct in Christchurch.
Read more

****

Sky City International Convention Centre

Remember the National government waffle:

### ODT Online Wed, 28 Oct 2015
Fletcher signs with SkyCity
By Simon Hartley
SkyCity’s $700 million convention centre and hotel project in central Auckland has contracted Fletcher Building for $477 million of the work, expected to begin by December. […] Despite controversy over the project, there was negligible political response to yesterday’s announcement, other than Minister of Economic Development Steven Joyce talking up the importance of the “national facility”.
Read more

****

20 July 2017
STATEMENT FROM FLETCHER (via interest.co.nz)

– Fletcher Building announces expected earnings for the financial year ended 30 June 2017
– Operating earnings expected to be approximately $525 million, down from previous guidance of $610-$650 million
– Likely impairment up to $220 million relating to Iplex Australia and Tradelink business units
– Departure of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director Mark Adamson
– Appointment of Francisco Irazusta as interim CEO, effective Monday 24 July 2017

Fletcher Building has today announced it expects operating earnings before interest, tax and significant items (‘EBIT’) to be approximately $525 million for the year ended 30 June 2017.

Trading in the Building Products, International, Distribution and Residential and Land Development divisions, as well as three of the four business units in the Construction division (Infrastructure, Higgins and South Pacific), are in line with the Company’s expectations, previously provided at the time of the interim results on 22 February 2017.

However, as work on major projects in the Building + Interiors (‘B+I’) business unit has progressed, it has become apparent that losses in B+I will exceed those previously estimated. The deterioration is due to:
– A major project subject to previous write-downs, which has required an increase in project resourcing and therefore cost as it nears completion;
– A second major project where construction timelines and the likely completion date have been extended;
– Reduced profit expectations on a number of smaller projects in the remainder of the B+I portfolio.

Fletcher Building Chairman Sir Ralph Norris said: “It is very disappointing to see further losses being reported in our B+I business, particularly when the vast majority of the remaining Fletcher Building business units have performed so well during the year. I know our people in B+I are working incredibly hard to deliver a number of projects for our clients and I would like to acknowledge their efforts.”

In addition, consistent with standard practice at the end of each financial period, Fletcher Building has undertaken a review of the Balance Sheet carrying values of its business units. This review has indicated that the value of two business units, Iplex Australia and Tradelink, are likely to be subject to an impairment charge of approximately $220 million, when the company finalises its financial statements in August. An impairment of this nature would be reported below the EBIT line and have no impact on cash earnings.

An impairment charge of $220 million would represent approximately 3% of the group’s total assets as at 30 June 2017. The amount of asset impairment is indicative at this stage and is subject to finalisation of the year-end audit.

“With regards to the impairment of Iplex Australia and Tradelink, while we do see progress in these business units the Board felt it was prudent to recognise that the near to medium term estimates of profitability in each business are not aligned with current carrying values,” continued Sir Ralph.

The Board also announced the departure of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director, Mark Adamson.

Sir Ralph Norris said: “The Board believes it is the right time for Mark to leave the Company, to allow a new CEO to lead Fletcher Building through this period and into the next phase of its strategy. The Board would like to thank Mark for his work and we wish him the best in his future endeavours.”

Mark Adamson said: “I am disappointed to finish my tenure on the back of a challenging result in the Construction Division, however I am proud of what has been achieved over the last five years – most notably the turnaround of Formica, double-digit earnings growth in Distribution, our acquisition of Higgins and the significant progress in our residential development division.”

The Board has appointed Francisco Irazusta interim CEO effective Monday 24 July 2017.

“Francisco joined Fletcher Building in March 2015 and is currently Chief Executive of the International Division. Prior to joining the Company he held senior leadership positions with a number of building products companies in North America and Europe and will provide stable leadership for the business during this transition, with the support of myself and the Board,” finished Sir Ralph.

The Board will now commence a process to appoint a new CEO.

[ends]

█ Fletcher Building http://www.fletcherbuilding.com/

Christchurch Justice and Emergency Services Precinct

Other news:
● NZH: Fletcher CEO sorry for inflammatory internal email: Chairman
● Stuff: SkyCity confirms delay to international convention centre as Fletchers feels ‘pain’
● NZH: CEO departs amid Fletcher’s $415m fortune turnaround, stock drops to 16-month low

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Southern Police : Nothing changed since Tom Lewis wrote Coverups & Copouts

Remember when Police bought up all the copies they could, and ‘disappeared’ public library lending copies….

Nothing has changed. No-one is policing the Police.
This is the New old news….

****

C L O S E ● T O ● H O M E

A 25-year-old woman says she filmed a police officer minutes before he attacked her.

### ODT Online Wed, 19 Jul 2017
Police assault allegation
By Rob Kidd
Police are investigating allegations an experienced Otago police officer subjected a woman to a vicious attack while he was off-duty. The 25-year-old complainant said she was at a fancy-dress birthday party on Saturday night when the alleged assault took place. She said the man, who was wearing a wig at the time, smashed her face into the bonnet of a car before dragging her down a driveway on her front. The pair had never previously met, she said. “He just lost it.” The Otago Daily Times has chosen not to identify the officer involved, the woman or the town where the alleged incident took place. A police spokesman said police were aware of a complaint about an off-duty officer early on Sunday. Police would not confirm whether the man remained at work.
Read more

****

Speaking of cover-ups….

After reading the Otago Daily Times (page 3) yesterday, it was interesting to google the name *Kallam Croudis* —there’s a name for Conflicts of Interest, past and present.

NZ Police should sack Croudis. What a corrupting and observable liability—

Det Snr Sgt Kallum Croudis has been criticised over his handling of a case which resulted in a woman’s confession being thrown out by the court.

### ODT Online Mon, 17 Jul 2017
Judge critical of senior officer
By Rob Kidd
A senior Dunedin police officer has been slammed by the court over his involvement in a case in which he had a conflict of interest. Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis spoke to a suspect at least three times without being part of the investigation team. Judge Michael Crosbie also criticised the officer’s record-keeping and his “casual approach”, which resulted in police obtaining an unlawful confession from the woman regarding the death of a Dunedin man. In his judgement ruling the confession inadmissible [Judge Crosbie] noted Det Snr Sgt Croudis was a friend of the dead man’s father. Southern district commander Superintendent Paul Basham said the comments of the court would be taken very seriously and “the issues raised in the judgement are of concern”. A spokeswoman later confirmed police would not pursue the prosecution against the woman. […] At the May hearing, [Croudis] said he spoke to the female defendant at least three more times before she had a “voluntary” interview at the station.
Read more

Back when, the same, the same….
ONE BAD COP AMONGST MANY

### Stuff.co.nz 01:43, Jan 31 2009
Judge lambasts top cops in damning report
via Sunday Star-Times
The actions of some of the country’s highest-ranking police have been criticised in a damning Independent Police Conduct Authority report due out later today. The report – released after a two-year investigation – makes adverse comments about 10 Dunedin police, including four inspectors, a detective senior sergeant and two detective sergeants. Justice Lowell Goddard is understood to criticise police for their involvement in private investigations of ACC clients – and for how they handled their subsequent inquiries into complaints. The inquiry was launched after conflict of interest allegations that Peter Gibbons – a former Dunedin CIB head who became a private investigator working for ACC’s fraud unit – used his police constable son-in-law to improperly obtain search warrants and seize property from ACC clients. The clients alleged that when they complained, senior police – including three of Gibbons’ former CIB colleagues – failed to act. […] Gibbons, who was a detective senior sergeant in the CIB in the 1990s, supervised three of the police criticised in the Goddard report Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Inglis and Detective Sergeant Brett Roberts. A previous internal police inquiry showed Croudis assigned Henderson ACC-related cases knowing about his conflict of interest as Gibbons’ son-in-law. Inglis and Roberts conducted the initial inquiries into Van Essen’s complaints. Croudis, Inglis and Roberts have been involved in both the original inquiry and reinvestigation of the David Bain mass murder case. Croudis arrested Bain in 1995.
Read more

****

Peanut-brain danger man Jeremy Buis of Dunedin Police….

Stuff.co.nz Last updated 22:36, July 17 2017
Police officer convicted for harassing Dunedin businessman for years
By Jack Fletcher
Dunedin policeman Jeremy Buis was responsible for the more than two-year campaign of harassment of local businessman Daniel Pryde. Jeremy Fraser Buis, 39, was convicted on a raft of charges relating to the harassment of Daniel Pryde after a June 2012 parking dispute escalated. Suppression of his occupation was lifted in the High Court at Dunedin on Monday. [17 July 2017] …. In April, Buis was found guilty of criminal harassment, threatening to do grievous bodily harm and intentional damage. He was sentenced to 200 hours of community work and order to pay emotional harm reparation of $15,000. Buis’ name suppression was lifted on April 21, but his occupation remained suppressed until Monday.
Read more

****

Southern Police have a dreadful history including participation in the crimes and events described in Coverups & Copouts, for which no prosecutions have issued. Few street-wise people in Dunedin trust the thin blue line to do their job. Is it any wonder Buis, Croudis and their ilk exist, and what of the off-duty police thug who attacked the 25-year-old female complainant on the weekend?

For these men, Louise Nicholas doesn’t exist.

****

### ODT Online Wed, 19 July 2017
Integrity of police threatened
OPINION New Zealanders need to have faith in the police force, a belief that when bad things happen to them, someone will be on their side, helping to right a wrong. That faith has been sorely tested in past years when police officers themselves have decided they are above the law. At the extreme end of the spectrum, in the United States, there has been ongoing debate about the role of the police in the shootings of young black men, in particular. Now, a white Australian woman has been shot in a Minnesota alley after calling the police about a possible assault in the alley behind her home. Most New Zealanders will surmise those sorts of incidents will never happen in this country. But the line between upholding the law by men and women in uniform and them taking the law into their own hands is becoming increasingly blurred. This week, the Otago Daily Times has reported on two incidents which have shaken public confidence in the police to the core.
Read more

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[previously]

Comment by Elizabeth
2017/03/31 at 2:24 am

Calls for a Royal Commission of inquiry into historic child abuse have been rife these last weeks, inflaming social media and mainstream media (MSM) around New Zealand.

Bless their hearts, Lauda Finem, based offshore, banged out a post at their website yesterday that easily sums up the New Zealand ‘scene’. This is a must read.

LF’s introductory comments are provided here, with excerpts of relevance to Dunedin.

[begins]

March 30, 2017 1:14 am • Lauda Finem
Why Bill English & Nasty Nats find Child Abuse Royal Commissions Terrifying
For the past month or so Kiwi newspapers and other media outlets have been slowly publishing stories relating to the growing chorus of voices calling for a Royal Commission into historic child abuse.
The latest trigger seems to have been an open letter calling for the same, although, in our view, a very narrow, much less desirable version of the ‘Royal Commission Into The Institutional Responses to Historic Child Sexual Abuse’ that our Australian PM Julia Gillard was forced to initiate in 2013; which is only now beginning to release various stats and reports on some of the findings and the evidence that has been heard.
Bill English, the halfwit that National decided to replace John Key with, has of course avoided mentioning the apparent success of the Australian commission, noting only that it might come in handy for New Zealand’s state sector when it comes to lessons that might be learned.

[photo caption] Just how much sway has Police Commissioner Mike Bush had on a government that is clearly terrified of any inquiry

English is in fact completely out of touch with reality in almost everything he has said publicly on the subject; going so far as to claim that there is nothing to be gained or learned by New Zealand establishing a similar inquiry.
This is despite the success of the Australian model and the fact that both Ireland and the UK have also conducted national inquiries.
Not only is the National party Government determined NOT to hold such an inquiry, they are also, seemingly, equally determined not to even entertain the notion that the victims of historic child abuse, sexual, physical and emotional deserve an unreserved apology from the crown. They also deserve to see, where at all possible, their abusers convicted and serving prison sentences.
This fact alone should have every right thinking New Zealander appalled. More especially given the likely scale of the criminal offending, if the Australian Royal Commissions findings are anything to go by; there being absolutely no reason to believe that New Zealand’s statistics would be any different to those of Australia.
In fact, if one is to take the figures recently released by the Australian Commission, and then compare them with the suggested 1100 children that the Kiwis say have been sexually abused whilst in care historically, clearly, New Zealand has had a far more significant problem than Australia per capita.
In fact, New Zealand’s problem does not seem to have abated, the country is still in the grip of almost daily reports of contemporary offending; the only conclusion being that the problem is not only systemic but there may be continuing cultural or institutional causes for its existence.

Read more at http://www.laudafinem.org/2017/03/30/why-bill-english-nasty-nats-find-child-abuse-royal-commissions-terrifying/

● To view the open letter and petition go to http://www.neveragain.co.nz/

****

[excerpts – Lauda Finem]

The first thing that has to be said is that those who have only just arrived at this cause are only calling for an inquiry into children in State care. This is significantly less than the Australian model which has left absolutely no rock un-turned in its pursuit of perpetrators, cover-ups and the truth.

—

The beauty of the Australian model is that it has captured everything, the words “Institutional Response” powerful in who it captured. Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Religious orders, schools, Teachers; state and private, police, social workers, the scope has been enormous….and rewarding, if the sheer volume of the Commissions results are anything to go by.

—

There is some anecdotal evidence that the New Zealand police have in fact been one of the primary reasons for the National Party Government, to date, being loathed to even consider a Royal Commission. First and foremost the absence of the religious organisations stands out like balls on a short haired dog. Second, the absence of the New Zealand police.

—

Does Bill English seriously believe that New Zealand Govt agencies, including the country’s systemically corrupt police force will learn anything from the published results of the Australian Royal Commission? Does any New Zealand politician seriously believe that for one minute? If they do then they should be pointed in the direction of a clinical psychologist for evaluation and treatment.

—

For both the New Zealand police and the country’s government it’s always been about harm minimisation, not for the unfortunate victims you understand, but rather for themselves.
Until recently, Police Association president for life, Greg O’Connor, was living breathing evidence that the New Zealand police force had gained absolutely nothing from either of the two Australian State crackdowns on police corruption. In fact, many of the gang rapes committed by New Zealand police remained concealed for years after both of those inquiries, some that we are aware of, indeed probably many more, remaining outside the public’s knowledge, the Police Commissioner and Prime Ministers dirty little secret.

—

Just how many of these men and woman suffered serious abuse at the hands of paedophiles and psychopaths working for New Zealand Govt agencies, including its police force?

—

In short, Bill English knows that once the scale of historic sexual physical and emotional harm to Kiwi children is known to the public the government will no longer be in control of the inquiry. Growing public anger will inevitably ensure that any Royal Commission gets what it needs, whether initially proposed and sanctioned or not, to aid in the job of ascertaining the enormous scale of the problem in New Zealand.

—

Evidence of these police and Government cover-ups is to be found here on Lauda Finem, it’s also to be found in a variety other places, libraries and online.
The work of Kiwi investigative journo Ian Wishart, in particular a special investigation Wishart conducted over a two year period, culminating in his 2007 accusations of New Zealand Police involvement in organised child sexual exploitation rings in both Christchurch and Dunedin. Accusations that were never properly investigated by police or the IPCA for quite obvious reasons.
Police behaviour that was at the time of the offending known to John Jamieson, then Christchurch District Commander and subsequently, as Commissioner of police (1984 – 1994), a man who the Catholic Church, following Jamieson’s brief and unremarkable political career, hired with the obvious intention of insuring that all accusations of historic child sexual abuse were mustered smoothly out the back door, much to the Arch Bishop’s benefit.

—

Prior to joining the Catholic Church John Jamieson, as Commissioner of Police, himself assisted in concealing, from the media and the public, allegations of rape, violence and corruption against serving police officers, one of whom escaped to South Africa with the aid of at least nine other serving Gisborne police officers.
In short, Bill English, without a shadow of a doubt, is fully cognisant of the scale of the historic problem in New Zealand, in particular the police involvement. He also likely knows that the scale of Historic child abuse in New Zealand is far greater than what has historically occurred in Australia, if only on a per capita basis.

—

New Zealand police have in the past used all sorts of skulduggery in efforts to thwart official inquiries into their unlawful practices and conduct, including sexual and physical abuses.

—

[photo caption] Two dirty cops: ex New Zealand police commissioners John Jamieson (L) and Howard Broad (R) Jamieson was certainly, without a shred of doubt, a master of the dark art of police corruption and cover-up

—

Lauda Finem have in the past written extensively on the existence of these practices and a secret police network, comprising ex police, some turned corrupt private investigators and others turned corrupt politicians, from local bodies right up to New Zealand’s Parliament.

See: New Zealand Police, ODESSA and just how they look after their own

See: New Zealand’s most powerful political force is?

—

We would also recommend that readers check out Ian Wishart’s article “To Serve and Protect”, also published in 2007, it’s an eye opener and gives readers some idea of what could be investigated had the New Zealand Government followed an identical path to that of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

See: Ex police commissioner Howard Broad to head CYF inquiry

Like ex Commissioner Jamieson, Police Commissioner Howard Broad was implicated by Wishart in sordid events which had been exposed by ex Christchurch cop turned whistle-blower and author Tom Lewis.

[ends]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Quick references:

August 14, 2007
Ian Wishart: To Serve & Protect: June 07
http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/13956/to-serve-protect-june-07/

Tom Lewis: Coverups & Copouts (Hodder Moa Beckett, 20 March 1998)
The book written by ex senior police officer Tom Lewis traverses the seedy side of Dunedin during the eighties, including the infamous ‘Dunedin Sex Ring’ case.

[promo]
“There have been police enquiries in New Zealand and there has even been the odd exposé but there has never been a book like Tom Lewis’ COVERUPS AND COPOUTS. His story will shock the average New Zealander and shake the New Zealand police to the very core. Not only does the former detective sergeant describe in methodical detail some of the worst coverups in NZ police history, but he punctuates his story in the most compelling fashion. Tom Lewis actually dares to name names. From commissioners to constables, the truncheon isn’t spared. This book will not have won Tom Lewis any friends in the New Zealand Police, but it will finally lay bare to New Zealanders what most had never thought possible of our Police:
* Christopher John Lewis – the truth behind the royal assassination attempt
* Ron Jorgensen – alive and well – and living in Australia
* Dunedin sex ring – why the police copped out
and much more.”

More on police officer Tom Lewis and the Dunedin Sex Ring:
http://www.presscouncil.org.nz/display_ruling.php?case_number=2015
Case Number: 2015 Tom and Teresa Lewis Against Otago Daily Times | Press Council Meeting December 2007

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Posts by the New Zealand Police Conduct Association (NZPCA):

July 27, 2014
INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.TV publish allegations
http://nzpca.co.nz/investigatemagazine-tv-publish-allegations/

July 27, 2014
Tom Lewis
https://nzpca.co.nz/tom-lewis/

July 27, 2014
“Cover ups and Cop outs” the book
https://nzpca.co.nz/cover-ups-and-cop-outs-the-book/

August 1, 2014
Police respond to allegations and possible publication
https://nzpca.co.nz/police-respond-to-allegations-and-possible-publication/

****

Other references:

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2007/04/the_bazley_report.html

http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2007/05/pca_refuses_to_investigate_dunedin_police_claims.html

[ends]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: deviantart.net – Behind my eyelids are islands of violence by feebeelu

Delta | Infinity | CCC staff collude to defeat Yaldhurst residents (again)

Yaldhurst Subdivision (former Noble Subdivision)

S T A T E ● O F ● P L A Y

Christchurch City Council is failing to ensure compliance with the subdivision consent and is then assisting the developer Noble/Delta – Infinity/Delta, to screw the Yaldhurst residents.

[click to enlarge]

****

About five of the affected Yaldhurst residents gave deputations to the full meeting of the Christchurch City Council on Thursday, 6 July 2017.

Prior to the meeting, the Infinity Joint Venture of which Delta is a majority partner (with its $13m gift investment from Dunedin City Council) had convinced CCC staff to sway Christchurch City councillors to vote for the dedication of private roads as opposed to vesting ownership in the Council. This in the attempt to first defeat land covenants the affected residents have over the property registered in 2003 to protect their inclusion in any subdivision. However, Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) cannot accept roads vesting in ownership with the Council when there are any encumbrances on the land – such as the residents’ covenants.

For the residents, Colin Stokes, at the council meeting, distributed to councillors a review of what CCC staff have done over the years.

Of course, as the facts flow they continue to entwine around Delta.

The residents are fighting to protect and enforce their rights in the subdivision consent; and to halt Delta and their Southern associates’ onslaught against them.

****

Received from Colin Stokes (Yaldhurst resident and caveator)
Wed, 12 Jul 2017 at 9:16 a.m.

Thanks for your ongoing support Elizabeth

Chris Hutching’s piece (The Press 10.7.17) is weak and void of facts that present our case.

● We have Land Covenants registered over all the land in 2003 to protect our inclusion in any subdivision – our specific Access Lot road has to be formed and vested to Christchurch City Council standards with CCC as a term of extinguishment of the covenants.
● The encumbrance on the land prevent vesting of roads as LINZ won’t allow roads to vest with the council with them on.
● Infinity/Delta behind closed doors with CCC staff came up with a scheme to dedicate the roads under old rules (not compliant with the RMA and the subdivision consent) so as to circumvent our covenant protection.
● The real story is that CCC is breaking rules and NOT requiring compliance with the subdivision consent so as to cheat the residents of their protection and their interests protected by that protection so as CCC and the developer can cut them out of the subdivision.
● CCC and the developer Noble/Delta – Infinity/Delta have taken conditions out of the consent, varied the consent, and permitted non-complying undersized infrastructure that makes our part of the subdivision impossible – specifically stormwater pipes and basins required on the lower lying developers’ land which is where the consent (and physical topography and site layout) requires our stormwater to go.
● CCC failing to enforce the conditions of the consent as the law requires means our Access Lot road cannot be formed, meaning we can not subdivide.
● Delta with the misuse of mortgagee powers passed the property to itself, or at least part of the property ($13.4m of an $18.35m “sale” = 73% of which $12.5m was left in the property in passing it to Infinity in the orchestrated “sale”).

[ends]

****

Prepared Summary and Review with subdivision plans as tabled at Christchurch City Council’s meeting (6 July), to assist understanding:

███ D 2017 07 04 Summary and Review of Circumvention of Covenants for Councillors Yaldhurst (16 pages)

1 Plan RMA92009135

2 Plan RMA92009135 hlite

The coloured plan shows the residents’ Access Lot between green lines going from Yaldhurst Rd and then dog-legging east to west. What is inside the yellow border is what is within the Subdivision Consent (note there is an internal yellow small 2 sites that are NOT in the consent – and 3 other of the residents’ lots in common ownership on the NS leg are not included in the consent).

It is this east west leg of the Access Lot that requires widened roading to enable the Lots each side to be subdivided pursuant to:-
– 2002 Agreements for sale and purchase (and 2008 further agreement)
– 2003 Registered Land Covenant Protection [see Summary and Review, page 1 para 2 for terms of extinguishment]
– 2009 Subdivision Consent (Condition 5 and stormwater Conditions for it 9.) [see Summary and Review, page 5 para 12]

The problem is
– the Security Sharing Joint Venture (Noble/Delta/Gold Band) SSJV designed and constructed their part of the subdivision such that it made the East West Access Lot owners (residents) parts of the subdivision impossible AND that the Council permitted this.

– Undersized stormwater infrastructure was corruptly installed without consent to NOT include the residents’ subdivisions (all the while falsely assuring residents it did).

– The stormwater is required to be on land the residents transferred to the developer in return for this stormwater and other provisions. It is required to be there for numerous reasons including physical and legal reasons;
* Residents transferred the land in return for this provision
* 2003 Land Covenants protect this land for that provision (required for the Access Lot Road to be formed and vested)
* 2009 The Subdivision Consent requires it to be on the developers’ land (Condition 9.5 which “disappeared”) [see Summary and Review, page 5 para 12 and page 10 email 16 Feb 2010]
* Residents that are part of that subdivision consent have the legal rights to the stormwater (s134 RMA) – the Council is refusing to enforce the conditions of the consent; and permitted the developer to NOT comply with the conditions.
* Land topography and layout physically requires it to go there. The land slopes High NWest to SEast Low

– Delta went ahead and constructed the infrastructure without legal consent – [see Summary and Review, page 10 email 22 Aug 2012]
* This is akin to a builder building a house without consent.
* Council failed to issue an abatement notice for works being complete without consent, and to non-complying standards.

For all the Council staff failings, and the consent holders and JV partners’ failings and corruption of making the residents parts of the subdivision impossible:-
– Delta/Infinity and Council staff are recommending to the Elected Council to vote to circumvent the residents’ Land Covenants so:-
* the residents roading and subdivisions will no longer be protected and will be impossible;
* the JV Infinity/Delta will make more profit by not having to comply with the conditions of the consent that requires the residents’ roading and inclusion (as above)
* Council staff “mistakes” and wrongdoing of permitting non-complying works and not enforcing the conditions of the consent (as required by law) will be covered up.

– Delta and DCC was the facilitator of transferring the property from the Delta/Gold Band/Noble Joint Venture to the Delta/Infinity Joint Venture.
– Delta (illegally) owned 67.5% of the 1st mortgage and controlled Gold Band through their Security Sharing JV.
– Delta’s assurances it had nothing to do with the mortgagee sale is a lie.
– Delta refused to allow Gold Band to accept offers to redeem the 1st mortgage (illegal under s102 & s103 Property Law Act).
– DCC refused to allow redemption of the 1st mortgage.
– DCC (and Delta) refused to accept assignment of the 1st mortgage when Colin Stokes and another (as parties with interests in the land entitled to redeem) offered it to them
* had they done, Delta could have registered about an additional $16m in agreements to mortgage they were sitting on
* all that was required in return was “our little road” which is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT of the subdivision consent in any event.

[ends]

As reported by The Press, the eight-year dispute involving the stalled Yaldhurst subdivision has now gone to mediation between the property owners and the developers.
The dispute has been aired in several High Court cases between the private landowners and the developers, which are continuing.

Related Post and Comments:
11.7.17 Delta has deep fingers into 8-year subdivision dispute at Yaldhurst

█ For more, enter the terms *delta*, *aurora*, *grady*, *luggate*, *jacks point*, *dchl*, *auditor-general*, *noble*, *yaldhurst* or *epic fraud* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

DCC makes no direct return from rugby or events held at Fubar Stadium

L A S T ● M O N T H ’S ● P R O N O U N C E M E N T ● F R O M ● A B O V E

ODT 20.6.17 (page 6)

ODT 26.6.17 (page 8)

Trevor Lloyd: Defeat of British rugby by the All Blacks in 1905 [pinimg.com]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

If you meet bleak people not from here, on a Monday, reach for The Economist

The Economist

—

Received from Lee Vandervis
Friday(!) at 9:37 a.m.

“What if?”: The joy of hypotheticals

Today The Economist launches the 2017 edition of The World If, our annual collection of scenarios. Some of last year’s predictions proved to be uncannily close to what actually transpired, so readers may be tempted to search our latest batch for future surprises. Yet the point of asking “what if” questions is not to make predictions. It is to stretch thinking. Some of our speculation is deadly serious, but escaping reality can also be fun.

Note, The Economist [signs as]:
Published since September 1843 to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”

PS. Today Monday I find Dunedin is warmer than brittle Jafas in bad spirits, who left their manners other side of Cook Strait.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Asbestos contamination at Dunedin Railway Station

[womentravelnz.com]

There’s a new tenancy at the Dunedin Railway Station.

People working on the project had been told the whole underfloor area was safe to enter; that there was plastic down.

Turns out the plastic cover ran short, and a number of site workers had crawled across bare dirt, kicking up a lot of dust as they went – it was found the area had been contaminated with asbestos.

We understand workmen from several companies have been affected.

The Dunedin Railway Station is a council owned property. Affected sitemen have since had their names added to the WorkSafe Asbestos Exposure Database; and Health and Safety meetings have been called to review safety drills and gear provision.

It appears a few people have slipped up along the ‘food chain’ of managerial responsibility for the workers, starting with DCC management (the building owner).

We hear DCC is now paying for workers to be educated on what protection gear they must wear on exposed asbestos worksites.

—

Related Post and Comments:
19.6.16 Thoughts on ODT Insight : Chris Morris investigates Asbestos plague

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Delta has deep fingers into 8-year subdivision dispute at Yaldhurst

Blind Justice (detail) by Beeler – Columbus Dispatch 2016 [caglecartoons.com]

****

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 17:37, July 10 2017
Delta and Infinity’s Yaldhurst subdivision dispute at mediation
By Chris Hutching – The Press
An eight-year dispute involving developers and a group of property owners in a stalled Christchurch subdivision has gone to mediation. Late last year Dunedin City Council agreed to authorise its Delta Utilities company to refinance a $13.4 million outstanding debt to go ahead and complete the Yaldhurst development along with Wanaka-based developer, Infinity. To allow the development to proceed, Christchurch City Council staff recently recommended the unusual step of “dedicating” the access road rather than “vest” it with the council. But a representative of the private property owners, Colin Stokes, told city councillors that his group’s rights to compensation for land for the road had not been addressed. […] The dispute has been aired in several High Court cases between the private landowners and the developers, which are continuing. Most people who originally signed up to buy properties at the subdivision have pulled out and meanwhile Christchurch’s residential property market has cooled significantly.
Read more

****

Related Posts and Comments:
15.6.17 Site Notice : post(s) removal [we heard from Steve Thompson’s solicitors]
4.3.17 Christchurch housing : ‘If you build the right thing, buyers will still come’
17.2.17 Gurglars visits the Delta/Noble JV subdivision at Yaldhurst
2.2.17 Hilary Calvert complaint to Auditor-General #DCHL
30.12.16 Hilary Calvert on Deloitte report for Aurora/Delta
12.12.16 Deloitte report released #Delta #Aurora
7.12.16 Audit and Review, Deloitte
26.9.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #14 : The Election and The End Game revisited
22.9.16 DCC : Delta deal 1 Aug 2016 Council meeting (non-public) #LGOIMA
9.9.16 Calvert on DCC, ‘We could have a much more democratic and transparent operation of council’
2.9.16 Delta Yaldhurst : Local Opinion + Update from Caveators via NBR
18.9.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #13 : Councillors! How low can you Zhao ?
26.8.16 Delta #EpicFail —EpicFraud #12 : The Buyer Confirmed
24.8.16 Delta peripheral #EpicFail : Stonewood Homes —Boult under investigation
8.8.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #11 : The Buyer
3.8.16 LGOIMA requests to DCC from Colin Stokes #Delta #Noble #Yaldhurst
1.8.16 Delta #EpicFail —The End Game according to CD
31.7.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #10 : The Beginning of the End : Grady Cameron and his Steam Shovel
29.7.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #9 : The Long & Winding Road…. Leads Back to Delta’s Door
21.7.16 Delta EpicFail #8 : Cr Calvert goes AWOL, 23 Questions for Mr McKenzie —Saddlebags !!
19.2.16 Delta: Update on Yaldhurst subdivision debt recovery
17.7.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #7 : The Long & Winding Back Road
15.7.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #6 : What do you mean, Property Law Act ?
12.7.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #5 – Delta and the ghostly hand of Tom Kain
8.7.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #4 : Tales from the Courtroom….
30.6.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #3 : Security Sharing and not Caring….. who’s got that Constricting Feeling ?
27.6.16 Delta #EpicFail —Epic Fraud #2 : WWTKD – What Would Tom Kain Do ?
5.6.16 Delta #EpicFail —Noble Subdivision —Epic Fraud
13.3.16 Delta #EpicFail —Noble Subdivision : [rephrased] Conflict of Interest
11.3.16 Delta peripheral #EpicFail : Stonewood Homes and ancient Delta history
6.3.16 Delta #EpicFail —Nobel Subdivision : A Neighbour responds
29.1.16 Delta #EpicFail —Yaldhurst Subdivision ● Some forensics
21.1.16 Delta #EpicFail —Yaldhurst Subdivision

█ For more, enter the terms *delta*, *aurora*, *grady*, *luggate*, *jacks point*, *dchl*, *auditor-general*, *noble*, *yaldhurst* or *epic fraud* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

“Fat” gawky Hotel and Apartment building : Questionable design even with 4 floors lopped off

What environmental considerations, Mr Page?

More than minor.

[Everyone will remember the learned Mr Page from the Betterways hotel and apartment building application for 41 Wharf St at the waterfront, not so long ago.]

Mr Bryce (independent planner): …a “key concern” for submitters…the building would block sun from reaching the Regent Theatre and surrounds from 3pm at winter solstice. “At this time of year, the proposal will effectively remove all remaining access to sunlight received over [the] southern end of the western side of the Octagon.” (ODT)

Mr Page (the developer’s ‘Brief’): The “potential shading effect” was acknowledged, but Mr Page was confident the hotel’s benefits “will far outweigh” those concerns. (ODT)

Mr Page, again : The hotel’s “tall, slender built form” minimised the impact on those living closest to the hotel project site… (ODT)

Good heavens.

Source: Application documents

—

At Facebook:

### ODT Online Tue, 11 July 2017
Hotel developer still confident
By Chris Morris
Dunedin’s latest five-star hotel bid will “not be viable” if the developer is forced to reduce the building’s height, it has been claimed. But the man behind the project, Tekapo businessman Anthony Tosswill, remains confident the hearings panel set to decide the project’s fate can yet be swayed by the hotel’s benefits. The comments came from Phil Page, the lawyer acting for Mr Tosswill, days after the public release of an independent planner’s report running the ruler over the hotel proposal.
The report by Nigel Bryce concluded consent be declined unless Mr Tosswill agreed to a “substantial reduction” in the building’s height, by four storeys, to bring it down from 60m to 45.5m.
Read more

****

Resource Consent Application LUC 2017-48 and SUB 2017-26, 143 – 193 Moray Place, Dunedin (Proposed Hotel)

The hearing will be held on Mon 31 Jul, Tue 1 Aug, Wed 2 Aug, Thu 3 Aug and Fri 4 Aug 2017 in the Edinburgh Room, Municipal Chambers (off the Octagon). The hearing will commence at 9.30 am each day.

█ Consultant Planner’s Section 42a Report (PDF, 4.3 MB)

[excerpt]

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATION
[5] For the reasons set out in paragraphs 72 to 334 below, I consider that the Proposal in its current form, will not promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources in accordance with Part 2 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA or the Act).
[6] The Development promotes a contemporary design, which is considered acceptable within this setting and articulates sufficient design interest and modulation through the facades and its pinwheel like form expressed in the tower component of the building. The building’s design incorporates a base building or podium, which allows the structure to have an active street frontage to Moray Place and Filleul Street, which is considered a positive design response.
[7] The Development will be ‘juxtaposed’ against a backdrop of the heritage buildings located to the east of Moray Place, including the Town Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral when viewed from the west and St Paul’s Cathedral and the Municipal Chambers when viewed from the south (including from the Octagon).
[8] The building’s overall height is considered to generate an over-dominance on properties to the north and west of the Site, and will have more than minor adverse effects on the amenity values of residential properties to the west of the Site. This is largely due to the significant change in scale introduced by the Development and the lower scale built environment that currently exists to the west and north of the development site, comprising predominantly two to three storeys in height.
[9] The Development will adversely impact upon the townscape values of the TH02 Octagon townscape precinct under the Operative Dunedin City District Plan (Operative Plan), including loss of sunlight penetration into the Octagon during the Winter Solstice and will adversely impact upon the setting and pre-eminence of existing heritage buildings such as the St Paul’s Cathedral and the Municipal Chambers building when viewed from the Octagon.
[10] The Development is considered to result in more than minor visual amenity and shading effects on Kingsgate Hotel to the south of the Site. The Kingsgate Hotel will experience prolonged and more sustained loss of light over a wider part of the property and associated buildings over the critical morning period during the Equinox and Winter Solstice periods (or collectively over ¾ of the year). This conclusion has been reached having regard to the potential for the Site to be developed up to a maximum height of 11 metres with a building erected against all boundaries (the ‘controlled activity building outline’).
[11] For the scale of the building to be mitigated to an acceptable level, and to maintain and enhance the amenity values of the City Centre and wider environs, Council’s urban design consultant, Mr [Garth] Falconer recommends reducing the proposed building height by four levels to bring the total height down to nine storeys (Level 13, +157,500 (datum level) on Drawing Section AA). This reduction would provide for a maximum height of 45.6 metres from existing ground level, or a maximum height breach of 34.4 metres (including the lift shaft). This mitigation response would not remove any of the 210 visitor accommodation rooms (hotel rooms), and would maintain supporting facilities including licensed premises, retail, conference, meeting facilities and on-site amenities, parking, and servicing areas. I note, for completeness, that the Applicant is not currently proposing to reduce the height of the Development.
[12] In its current form, it is my recommendation that the proposal should be declined.

More about Garth Falconer, DCC’s consulting urban designer:
LinkedIn profile: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/garth-falconer-a0699bb3
Owner and Director, Reset Urban Design Ltd: http://reseturban.co.nz/

Take a glimpse of the ‘urban form’ at Takapuna, North Shore Auckland (his home turf), to know Mr Falconer is likely missing any handle on building height for a heritage city like Dunedin.

****

Agenda and all documents including Submissions at:

http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/notified-resource-consents/notified-applications-pending/luc-2017-48-and-sub-2017-26

****

At Facebook [see comments]:

### ODT Online Sat, 8 Jul 2017
Reject hotel bid: planner
By Chris Morris
A planner has recommended rejecting Dunedin’s latest five-star hotel bid, unless the developer agrees to a “substantial reduction” in the building’s height. The recommendation to decline consent came in a report by independent consultant Nigel Bryce, made public yesterday, ahead of the public hearing beginning on July 31. In his report to the panel of independent commissioners, Mr Bryce said the hotel development would “visually dominate” its surroundings, including the town hall, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Municipal Chambers. It would be the tallest building in the central city and would cast a shadow over the Octagon, as well as the nearby Kingsgate Hotel, during winter. Together with other impacts, the development was considered to be “non-complying” under the city’s district plan rules. It would only be acceptable if the building was reduced by four storeys, lowering its overall height from 60m to 45.6m, which was still well above the existing 11m height limit for the site, his report said.
Read more

[initial coverage]
7.7.17 ODT: Decline hotel consent: report

### ODT Online Wed, 28 Jun 2017
Two from North Island on hotel hearings panel
By Chris Morris
The panel to decide the fate of Dunedin’s latest five-star hotel bid features one familiar face and two from the North Island. Tekapo businessman Anthony Tosswill’s bid to build a 17-storey hotel and apartment tower in Dunedin would be considered over five days, beginning on July 31, it was confirmed yesterday. […] The panel of three would be headed by chairman Andrew Noone, now an Otago regional councillor, acting in his role as an independent commissioner. […] Alongside him will be fellow independent commissioners Stephen Daysh, of Napier, and Gavin Lister, of Auckland.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
● 14.5.17 RNZ reports July hearings for proposed hotel apartment building [comments by Mr Tosswill]
● 4.5.17 Submissions close 10 May : Proposed 17-storey, est. 62.5 metres-high Moray Place hotel/apartment building
● 7.4.17 Proposed hotel *height and design* —the very least of it #sellingoursouls
● 5.6.17 Application lodged for FIASCO Hotel by Tosswill #DunedinWrecks
● 18.12.16 DCC set to take away CBD car parks without Economic Impact research
● 15.10.16 Battle of the hotels : DCC meat in the sandwich (unedifying)
● 5.10.16 Dunedin bauble #votecatcher
● 4.10.16 The Demon Duck freak show of partial ‘Civic’ information! Before voting closes! #Dunedin
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
19.8.15 Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?
1.4.14 HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?
25.3.14 Hotel We LIKE: Distinction Dunedin Hotel at former CPO

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Source: Application documents

Aurora Energy struggles to proofread #FastTrackPoleProgramme

At Facebook:

The ‘free’ publication didn’t arrive in letter boxes at lower Pitt St, Dunedin – some householders receive official mail through post slots in their front doors. Don’t tell me the mail distributors for Aurora – god, like Allied Press – refuse to deliver to door slots off the street (in clear safe public view) due to [their] perceived Health and Safety risks…. greater than dangerous poles ? [Unlike NZ Post, DX Mail and other Couriers who provide efficient direct service.]

****

[Old stats, who would guess Aurora’s in such a financial and corporate mess?]

Aurora Energy is an electricity distribution company in Otago, New Zealand. Aurora Energy is owned by Dunedin City Holdings Limited on behalf on the Dunedin City Council. Aurora Energy is New Zealand’s sixth largest electricity distributor. Wikipedia

Formerly called: Dunedin Electricity Limited (1990-2003)
Industry: Energy
Predecessor: Waipori Falls Hydroelectric Company Ltd
Founded: June 26, 1990 in Dunedin, New Zealand
Headquarters: Dunedin, New Zealand
Key people:
– Grady Cameron (CEO)
– Stephen Thompson (Chairman) [previously, Ian Parton]
Revenue: $99.5 Million USD (2015)
Net income: $8.1 Million USD (2015)
Total assets: $413.9 Million USD
Total equity: $182.55 Million USD (2015)
Owner: Dunedin City Council
Parent organisation: Dunedin City Holdings Limited

Website: http://www.auroraenergy.co.nz/
Fast Track: http://www.auroraenergy.co.nz/about/major-projects/current-projects/fasttrack/

****

Helterskelter Delta, solidly joined at Aurora’ hip, writes an open letter at page 3 of today’s ODT:

[click to enlarge]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

How To See and Be Seen : 1. sit on the floor 2. do not lie #SDHB

At Facebook:

The Dunedin Hospital eye department’s throughput is commendable despite the lack of chairs and wait space provided by the fat cat, high fee-earning Team of Commissioners led by lawyer Kathy Grant….

As a user of the department’s services, there’s been no impediment to my eye treatment and monitoring at any time. I have never had to sit on the floor, nor would I even contemplate doing so —silly Sheep!

The staff were exactly right to complain to their union.

—

### ODT Online Wed, 5 Jul 2017
Elderly patients forced to sit on floor
By Eileen Goodwin
Older patients were forced to sit on the floor while waiting for an appointment in the crisis-hit eye department at Dunedin Hospital, prompting a complaint from staff to their union. Public Service Association organiser Julie Morton said the lack of adequate waiting space was a health and safety issue. “There are frequently not enough seats in the waiting room to accommodate those waiting, and they have to sit on the floor,” Mrs Morton wrote to the Southern District Health Board last month. Some of the patients who had to sit on the floor were older people.
Read more

****

D’oh, Ms Kathy Grant doesn’t believe in the value of Democracy in the Southern Region. Does the Southern community want the non-egalitarian, fryable Ms Grant to serve out her term to 2019.

### ODT Online Wed, 5 Jul 2017
Need for elected health board role downplayed
By Eileen Goodwin
The “truly unique” arrangements at Southern District Health Board will not adversely affect the Dunedin Hospital rebuild, commissioner Kathy Grant says. The Government is planning a hospital redevelopment potentially worth more than $1billion, and there are no elected representatives to influence the project because the board was sacked. Mrs Grant said the SDHB’s relationship with the Ministry of Health was no different than if an elected board was in place. “I’m not sure what additional dimension the existence of a traditional board would necessarily bring to that relationship.” […] The Otago Daily Times has been told by a contact, who would not be named, that the Cabinet would consider three options outlined [for the proposed new hospital] in an indicative business case, the most expensive of which costs more than $1 billion. After that decision, the rebuild governance group and the ministry would look at where to build and whether land needed to be acquired.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: dailymail.co.uk – article: Why are my blinking eyes so sore and watery?

DCC management

ODT editor in chief Barry Stewart at Channel 39 News this evening:

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Aurora/Delta new directors

Dunedin City Council – Media Release
New directors appointed for Aurora and Delta boards

This item was published on 03 Jul 2017

Dunedin City Holdings Limited (DCHL) has appointed three new directors within its group as part of changes to the Aurora Energy and Delta Utility Services companies which take effect from today, Monday, 3 July. DCHL Board chair Graham Crombie says that Margaret Devlin and Brenden Hall have been appointed to the Aurora Board, while Steven Grave has been appointed to the Delta Board.

“There was strong interest in these vacancies, with a total of 80 applications received from throughout New Zealand and overseas. I’m delighted that we’ve been able to appoint three talented and experienced people to these roles.”

Mr Crombie says the board appointments have been made as a result of DCHL implementing one of the key recommendations from a Deloitte review of the companies’ network maintenance processes late last year. Deloitte recommended that Aurora and Delta should have different board members with no commonality of directors. As previously announced, current board members Steve Thompson and Dave Frow remain on the Aurora board only, with Mr Thompson as chair. Brian Wood and Trevor Kempton will remain on the Delta board only, with Mr Wood as transition chair. “The changes will see the companies fully separate with Aurora being the asset owning and management company, while Delta will revert to a contracting company. The skills required in each company from a governance perspective are different,” he says. “However, it is important that some continuity is maintained within the governance structures. The decision was therefore made early on to have two of the current directors move to each new board.” DCHL expects to make an appointment to fill the one remaining director vacancy on the Delta Board, within the coming weeks.

Director fees totalling $220,500 for Aurora and $204,000 for Delta, as recommended by an independent review by the Institute of Directors were approved by DCHL and endorsed by the Council. These fees compare to the current total fees for the combined companies of $258,250.

Contact DCHL Chair on 034774000 | Mobile: 0274363882
DCC Link

█ Media release – New directors appointed for Aurora and Delta boards
(PDF, 54.1 KB)

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The A/D directors forever joined at the hip think they can tough it out by collecting fees.

Both the non-retiring and the newbies appear grey around the gills, deadhead controlling and incapable of clean governance.

Larks, it appears Mr Crombie is staying on at DCHL. Not enough lawn mowing at Clyde to wobble his wattles.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

LGNZ, don’t wish ‘his lordship’ on New Zealand #VoteRachelReese

[anonymous]

Local Government New Zealand chief executive Malcolm Alexander said there was no job description for the role of president. “It’s a governance role, chief representative and chief media spokesperson for the organisation.”

What has Mr Mayor achieved for South Dunedin following DCC’s mudtank/pump station fiasco – see 3 June 2015 FLOOD and his holus-bolus media pronouncements upon the Community of South Dunedin, their property assets and livelihoods. A brand new ratepayer-owned 2016 Hyundai Santa Fe was written off in a mysteriously “unreported” serious injury crash in the 2016/17 holiday period. His council is costing Dunedin ratepayers $20M+ pa to make the underutilised loss-making rugby stadium “work” (capital debt repayments and operational subsidies, see Intergenerational Debt). Continues major DCC spending spree on ‘nice to haves’ before addressing serious underspend on basic infrastructure (water and waste, roading). Without public explanation or consultation, presides over $100M being added to council group debt, as signaled in DCC’s LTP/Annual Plan 2017/18 projections. No prosecutions taken for the loss of 152+ DCC owned vehicles: Citifleet! Refuses to address council owned Aurora Energy’s programmed neglect of Otago’s power network, under the concerned regulatory eye of NZ Commerce Commission. Cr Vandervis was called a liar in public on three media-recorded occasions. Claims (media outburst) he is responsible for Jim O’Malley’s campaign to save the Dunedin Cadbury Factory. On it goes. —Meet bob the builder.

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Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese said in a letter to councils around the country she was nominated by Wellington Mayor Justin Lester and Matamata-Piako Mayor Jan Barnes.

### ODT Online Sat, 1 Jul 2017
Cull seeks LGNZ president role
By David Loughrey
Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull is in the running to become the next president of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ). Mr Cull’s only competitor for the role is Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese. The news of his bid came in a letter to the Otago Regional Council in which he asked for support. A letter from Ms Reese also appears in the council’s agenda, laying out her ambitions for the role. ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead said this week  he expected the council would give its vote to Mr Cull. LGNZ represents the national interests of councils in New Zealand. The organisation provides its members with advocacy and policy services, business support, advice and training. An LGNZ spokesman said an election would be held at the LGNZ general meeting on July 25, after an annual conference in Auckland, where the two mayors could present their cases.
Read more

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Source: ORC Agenda 20 Jun 2017 [screenshots – click to enlarge]

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A pre-trial hearing for the defamation case brought by Cr Lee Vandervis against Mayor Dave Cull was held in June. This involved setting of indemnity costs (a not insignificant sum) before the case may proceed to a judge-alone trial. Not a jury trial.

What does this mean?
In a trial by judge-alone, the judge takes on the role of “fact-finder” (determining admissibility of evidence pre-trial). All the evidence is presented to the sitting judge and he or she is responsible for determining the facts and delivering the verdict. In a judge-alone trial the court is required to give reasons for its decision.

In a jury trial, the jury is the fact-finder – that is, the jury is responsible for determining the relevant facts of the case and applying the law to reach a verdict of guilty or not guilty. The jury may be discharged from giving a verdict if it cannot agree. The role of the judge is to oversee and control the conduct of the trial in a general way. A jury is not required to and does not give reasons for its verdict.

Indemnity costs, at the discretion of the Court, are a complete reimbursement of all legal costs incurred. In general civil proceedings, indemnity costs are reserved for cases where a party has acted frivolously or improperly in the conduct of the proceedings….a very high threshold only satisfied in truly exceptional cases. [Sometimes the contract between the litigating parties over which they are arguing, will itself provide for indemnity costs.]

In hushed local terms, the ‘costs’ has meant some unrest between backers and their ‘party’.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.