Tag Archives: Social Media

by | May 16, 2017 · 5:34 pm

@whatifdunedin tracks the International Space Station #ISS

Ignazio Magnani (@IgnazioMagnani), residing in Reggio Emilia, Italy, keeps his followers posted about the visibilty of the International Space Station and the composition of the crew aboard the spacecraft in orbit. His Twitter ID is a painting of Russian pioneer of space flight Yuri Gagarin, the first man to have done (12 April 1961) a space flight. Ignazio’s Twitter profile is a tribute to space exploration and the research to improve our quality of life.

****

Dunedin-based astronomer and dark skies proponent Ian Griffin (@iangriffin) keeps an eagle eye out for happenings overhead, often with superb and astonishing camera results. To obtain these shots of the overhead pass Ian used a 9.25inch Celestron with a Sony A7S2 camera.

****

Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) is NASA’s page for updates from the International Space Station, the world-class lab orbiting Earth 250 miles above. For the latest research, follow @ISS_Research.

****

In other news….

Inmarsat-5 F4 Mission
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will deliver Inmarsat-5 F4, a commercial communications satellite, to a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). As the industry leader and pioneer of mobile satellite communications, Inmarsat has been powering global connectivity for more than three decades. SpaceX is targeting launch of Inmarsat-5 F4 from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 49-minute launch window opens on Monday, May 15, at 7:21 p.m. EDT, or 23:21 UTC. A backup launch window opens on Tuesday, May 16, at 7:21 p.m. EDT, or 23:21 UTC.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

2 Comments

Filed under Business, Design, Dunedin, Education, Events, Fun, Geography, Innovation, Inspiration, Leading edge, Media, Name, New Zealand, People, Pet projects, Public interest, Technology, Transportation, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 4, 2017 · 7:53 pm

[FUT] There will be an SAS inquiry

Photo via publishers pottonandburton.co.nz

█ Website: HIT AND RUN – https://www.hitandrunnz.com/

****

N U T S H E L L S ● S I N C E ● B O O K ● L A U N C H

At Facebook:

### ODT Online Mon, 3 Apr 2017
No SAS inquiry: PM
There will not be an inquiry into allegations an SAS raid in Afghanistan led to civilian deaths. Prime Minister Bill English revealed that decision at his regular post-Cabinet press conference this afternoon, saying there was no basis for an inquiry. It came after formal advice from Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant General Tim Keating. “After considering Mr Keating’s briefing…and viewing video footage of the operation I have included there is no basis for an inquiry.” Mr English said if new information changed this it would be reconsidered. He said the allegations had caused distress to NZDF staff and their families. […] Hit & Run by journalists Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager claim six civilians were killed and 15 were injured in the 2010 raids in Afghanistan’s Baghlan province, and those facts have been covered up by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).
Read more

****

### radionz.co.nz 4:17 pm today
From The Panel with Jim Mora
No inquiry into the Afghanistan SAS operation #
Are there gaps in the NZDF account of the SAS operation in the Hit & Run book?
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (6′57″)

### radionz.co.nz 8:35 am today
PM trusting military’s word ‘a joke’ – Hager
By Craig McCulloch, Political Reporter
Investigative journalist Nicky Hager has accused Prime Minister Bill English of joining “a seven-year cover-up” by refusing to hold an inquiry into a 2010 raid in Afghanistan. Mr Hager and Jon Stephenson’s book Hit & Run claims six civilians were killed in a raid on two Afghan villages involving New Zealand’s SAS in 2010. Mr English yesterday ruled out an inquiry after being briefed by the Chief of Defence, Lieutenant General Tim Keating, and watching video footage of the operation shot by some of the aircraft involved. But Mr Hager said it was “a joke” for Mr English to trust the military’s word. “These are the people who are in trouble, so of course they don’t want an inquiry … No experienced minister should fall for that.”
Read more

### radionz.co.nz 12:39 pm on 3 April 2017
RNZ News
Soldiers’ honour hinges on inquiry – Transparency International
By Jane Patterson, RNZ Political Editor
A global anti-corruption group has added its voice to calls for an inquiry into allegations in the book Hit & Run, relating to raids on a Afghan village in 2010. The book alleges several civilians – including a three-year-old – were either killed or injured in the raid, which involved New Zealand special forces. The Defence Force has confirmed Operation Burnham took place on 22 August 2010, that New Zealand had a leading role, and there were fatalities that could have included civilians. However, it said the troops followed rules of engagement and the only people they could definitively say were killed were insurgents. Along with some parties and the book’s authors, Transparency International New Zealand chief executive Janine McGruddy wants an inquiry.
Read more

****

█ The New Zealand Special Air Service was formed on 7 July 1955 and is the special forces unit of the New Zealand Army, closely modelled on the British Special Air Service (SAS). It traces its origins to the Second World War and the famous Long Range Desert Group that a number of New Zealanders served with. The New Zealand Government states that NZSAS is the “premier combat unit of the New Zealand Defence Force” and it has been operationally deployed to a variety of locations, including the jungles of South-East Asia, the Pacific region and Afghanistan. The NZSAS was accorded Regimental status in 2013 and presently has the responsibility of conducting domestic Counter-Terrorism operations and international on request, overseas Special Operations missions and performing the disposal of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive hazards for both the military and civilian authorities. #

****

At Twitter:

█ Read more at Twitter #HitandRunNZ

****

### radionz.co.nz 8:35 am on 26 March 2017
From Sunday Morning with Wallace Chapman
Jon Stephenson – Hit and Run #
Co-author of the book, Hit and Run, Jon Stephenson, joins Wallace to talk about what he and Nicky Hager uncovered in their book and why there needs to be an official enquiry into what happened in Afghanistan.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (19′36″)

### radionz.co.nz 7:11 am on Wed 22 Mar 2017
From Morning Report with Susie Ferguson and Guy Espiner
New book claims Govt, NZDF covered up civilian casualties #
Journalist Nicky Hager says it is beyond belief government officials deny New Zealand SAS troops were involved in civilian deaths during a botched raid in Afghanistan in 2010.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (12′51″)

—

### radionz.co.nz 8:11 am on Wed 22 Mar 2017
From Morning Report with Guy Espiner
Blanket denial made about claims SAS soldiers killed civilians #
Journalist Jon Stephenson says SAS soldiers involved in a botched raid in Afghanistan have told him and fellow writer Nicky Hager that lies were told to cover up the fact civilians were killed.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (8′56″)

—

### radionz.co.nz 8:20 am on Wed 22 Mar 2017
From Morning Report with Susie Ferguson
War crimes specialist says NZ could face problems #
War crimes specialist Alison Cole says Hit and Run contains enough information for International Criminal Court prosecutors to begin an investigation.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (5′40″)

****

S A T I R E

****

C I R C L I N G ● T H O U G H T

COOL! Published on Mar 25, 2017
Sia – Blank Page ft. Christina Aguilera (Mashup)
“Blank Page” is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Christina Aguilera, taken from her seventh studio album, Lotus (2012). It was written by Aguilera, Chris Braide and Sia Furler, with production done by Braide. Aguilera had worked with Furler on her previous two albums Bionic and Burlesque, both released in 2010.

Artist: Francis Perreault
https://www.facebook.com/perreaultcreations

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Leave a comment

Filed under Democracy, Events, Media, Name, New Zealand, People, Politics, Public interest, Stadiums, Travesty

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 1, 2017 · 6:27 pm

April Fools

### ODT Online Sat, 1 Apr 2017
Bylaw would protect riders
Trucks, buses, cars and motorcycles must have them — and now the Dunedin City Council is considering a new bylaw making brake-lights and indicators compulsory for horses ridden on roads. The city had an extensive rural road network, used by hundreds of horse riders, whom the council had a responsibility to keep safe, a DCC equine spokeswoman said. In the first year, the council would subsidise the cost of tail-lights for horse owners who could provide evidence of financial hardship, after being saddled with the additional expense […] Ratepayers wishing to comment on the proposed bylaw will need to contact the DCC before noon today.
Read more

█ Related Post and Comments:
18.3.17 DCC Proposed Reserves and Beaches Bylaw : Real-deal submission

—

At Twitter:

—

At Facebook:

### NZ Herald 11:26 AM Saturday Apr 1, 2017
Best April Fools’ Day pranks of 2017
April Fools’ Day only comes around only once a year, so this is the only chance companies can prank the rest of the world. Here is a list of the best pranks of 2017 so far.
Read more + Video

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

1 Comment

Filed under Baloney, Business, Fun, Media, New Zealand, People, Public interest

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | March 24, 2017 · 7:06 pm

Stargate —and Aurora Australis

StargateVEVO Published on Mar 16, 2017
Stargate – Waterfall ft. P!nk, Sia
Waterfall is the debut solo single by Norwegian production duo Stargate, featuring vocals by American singer Pink and Australian singer Sia. The song was released on 10 March 2017, by RCA Records. The song was written by Stargate, alongside Diplo, Sia and Jr. Blender.

Baby, you’re my oxygen
When I cannot find my way on Earth
You know I can be when I hold on
Even when the rapid’s strong

### rcarecords.com (New York — March 17, 2017)
Stargate Releases Music Video For “Waterfall” Feat. P!nk And Sia
Norwegian producer/songwriter team Stargate, comprised of Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Eriksen, today releases the music video to their debut single as a recording artist Waterfall feat. P!nk and Sia. Shot at iFly in Ontario, California and directed by Malia James (Alessia Cara, Troye Sivan, Halsey), the innovative and futuristic video features world champion air dancers Inka Henriikka Tiitto and Amalie Hegland Lauritzen. The air dancing pair showcase their incredible skills by gracefully dancing in a wind tunnel with bursts of color, bringing Waterfall to life. Waterfall feat. P!nk and Sia has received outstanding critical response across the board including coverage in Fader, Pitchfork, and Entertainment Weekly. As lifelong fans of American popular culture, Stargate has created their own sound drawing equal inspiration from hip hop, electronic music and classic Scandinavian songwriting, and have become a mainstay of today’s worldwide musical landscape. LA-based Stargate will surprise, excite and inspire both existing and new fans through their own new forthcoming music, which will feature new, up and coming artists, as well as some of today’s biggest superstars. Read more

—

****

Aurora are caused by charged particles in the magnetosphere being blown by solar winds into the upper atmosphere. The resulting energy loss causes ionization, which emits light. Sometimes referred to as polar lights, aurora are predominantly seen in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions.

More than 130 photographers and enthusiasts left Dunedin Airport at 9pm on Thursday night (23 March), travelling south to the Antarctic circle and the southern auroral zone to see the natural lights phenomenon up close. The special Aurora Australis mission was the bold idea of Otago Museum director Dr Ian Griffin, but caught the imagination of aurora photographers with the flight selling out in less than a week. Tickets for the inaugural flight cost $4000 for economy class and $8000 for business class, and sold out in just five days. The official hashtag #flighttothelights has started trending on social media.

█ Stuff: Spectacular views of Southern Lights on world’s first aurora flight
[Great coverage + Videos]

The eight-hour flight included roughly five hours’ viewing of Aurora Australis.
Organisers are hoping to schedule another charter flight next year, although with Air NZ’s 767 planes going out of service, there are concerns the 2018 flight may have to depart from Christchurch or another main centre.

Flight path for inaugural trip from Dunedin [via stuff.co.nz]

****

At Twitter:

****

Stephen V Published on Mar 23, 2017
Aurora Australis From Flight NZ1980 23-24 March 2017
The first ever chartered flight to the Antarctic Circle from Dunedin New Zealand to intercept the auroral oval on the night of 23 March 2017. The 8 hour flight was a great success.

Another view:

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

6 Comments

Filed under Business, Coolness, Education, Events, Inspiration, Leading edge, Media, Music, Name, New Zealand, People, Pet projects, Pics, Public interest, Technology, Tourism, Transportation

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | January 19, 2017 · 6:23 pm

Video from America : Street protest —Washington DC #inauguration

Footage direct from a reader on site today….

protest-wdc-nzt-19jan2017-1

—

—

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

13 Comments

Filed under Democracy, Events, Geography, Hot air, People, Police, Politics, Public interest

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | January 13, 2017 · 12:54 pm

Aurora with yet another headache

At Facebook:

****

****

Note this particular meat from Richard Healey’s Facebook post:
[my emphasis]

“If you have a property where the lines were built before 2001, then Aurora owns everything up to the house. The only exceptions are where the lines have been brought up to standard and a letter has been sent to the property owner transferring ownership of the lines or a prior agreement is in place. That has almost never happened in Dunedin. If you think that you have been billed, and shouldn’t have been, write to Aurora. If you don’t get redress file a claim.
If you would like to read the appropriate legislation, look up the electricity act 1992 and search for the definition of “point of supply”.
What does that mean? It means that it’s probable that thousands of Dunedin residents have been charged for maintenance to lines and poles that they do not own.”

█ Electricity Act 1992
Reprint as at 18 October 2016
http://www.legislation.co.nz/act/public/1992/0122/latest/DLM281858.html

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

2 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, Central Otago, Construction, DCC, DCHL, DCTL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Education, Electricity, Finance, Geography, Health, Housing, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, NZRU, OAG, Ombudsman, ORFU, People, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Queenstown Lakes, Resource management, SFO, Stadiums, Tourism, Town planning, Travesty

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | January 9, 2017 · 6:00 pm

Letter of opinion draws wide support, view not shared by deathly DCHL

ODT 9.1.16 (page 6)

odt-9-1-16-letters-to-editor-pillans-p6-1

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

11 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, Central Otago, DCC, DCHL, DCTL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Education, Electricity, Finance, Geography, Health, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, NZRU, OAG, Ombudsman, ORFU, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Queenstown Lakes, Resource management, SFO, Sport, Stadiums, Tourism, Town planning, Travesty

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | January 8, 2017 · 6:03 pm

Otago’s dangerous electricity network —Aurora’s INCONSPICUOUS and INEFFECTIVE public safety messaging

aurora-energy-safety-message-odt-online_2017-01-08-11-11-33

[smartphone screenshot 2017-01-08]

The advertisement (safety message!) appears at ODT Online.
Blink and you miss it!

This is what Aurora Energy puts out for You to access Public Safety information. A yellow box with some branding, lost amongst news stories within a plethora of webpages.

Did anybody read ODT Online this summer ?
Did anyone see the ad ?
Did anyone notice the weblink ?
Did anybody click on the link ?
Did anyone do up their seat belt or wear a life jacket ?
How do you stay SAFE around a dangerous power network ?
What do you look out for ?
What do you avoid ?
In an emergency, what do you do ?
What sort of emergency ?
Clear guidelines ?

Or, read as ‘So what’ from the DCC-owned company.

****

How extensive is Aurora’s public safety messaging across all available media these holidays —and typically, across a year ?

Is Aurora’s public safety messaging evolving to provide clear informational content to keep the public SAFE around the DANGEROUS and DEGRADED electricity network ?

****

The adverteaser, and the related web information (reproduced below) is at the very low end of public safety information required to prevent personal injury or death. There is little informational value beyond the obvious.

Real life scenarios you should guard against, what are they ?

Other lines companies create graphics, audio and short videos that clearly explain what to do and what NOT to do around electrical facilities and in emergency situations involving live electricity.

Not so Aurora.

This YELLOW-BLOCK commercial branding exercise is cheap, casualised, determinedly ineffective and fully irresponsible. Further, it merely links to what has been up at the Aurora website for some time, which is basic and untelling.

Here’s the Aurora Energy link and their bland factless webpage content:

█ http://www.auroraenergy.co.nz/safety/

Aurora Energy puts your safety first. We want all our customers, employees, contractors and the wider community to be safe around electricity. Always keep a safe distance from electrical equipment and take extra care when working around electricity.

You can take some simple steps to make sure that you, and others around you, know how to keep yourself safe when around electricity.
● Treat all electricity as live and never touch electrical equipment
● Report electricity faults to your electricity retailer via their faults number
● Phone 111 immediately if there is an injury or risk of a fire
● Follow safe work practice near electrical equipment
● If you see a tree that is growing near or into a power line, contact Delta to arrange pruning services
● Inform others around you of the dangers of electricity
● Be prepared in the event of a natural disaster or extended power outage.
 
Read our free guide to working safely around Aurora Energy’s electricity network (PDF) before working near our electricity network. We’re here to help and can provide you information and services to help you stay safe.
 
Our Public Safety Management System controls hazards that present significant risk of serious harm or major property damage. The System complies with the requirement of the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010. To report a potential hazard, please complete the Report a Hazard form or contact Delta.

****

If Aurora has conducted a full PUBLIC SAFETY CAMPAIGN IN OTAGO
across all available media – including dailies, community newspapers, schools, public libraries, council service centres, magazines, online noticeboards, radio, television, instant text messaging, flyers, billboard posters etc
—we have missed it.

It’s not ‘just’ dangerous poles and lines – it’s the condition of the other dangerous and degraded network assets (including conductors, transformers, cast iron potheads, cables, oil-filled switchgear, airbrakes etc) that the public needs to be concerned about.

Aurora Energy is NOT telling you about these : the condition of other network assets after 20-30 years of Dunedin City Council-owned companies’ inept management and criminal neglect of Otago’s power supply.

What would make the best Public Safety Campaign ?

****

The Aurora report by Deloitte made public on 12 December 2016 says:

Refer page 8 (1.5.9 Summary of Recommendations | Health & Safety), and page 31 (4.6. Health & Safety recommendations) – bolding by whatifdunedin:

The Board and management of Aurora need to adopt a more transparent approach with staff and the public. There needs to be acknowledgement of the state of the network along with detailed plans on how these issues are going to be rectified.

****

ODT 13.12.16
– “The Deloitte report did not include a detailed investigation of health and safety issues, but said risk had been increased by a lack of investment. “It is inevitable that this increases the level of risk inherent in the network that could have implications for staff and/or members of the public,” it said.”
– “Mr Cull also refrained from saying the network was unsafe, instead saying: “I don’t think it is as safe as it should be.”
– “[Richard] Healey said he was satisfied for the most part with the report, but not with the response from Mr Cull, DCHL chairman Graham Crombie and Mr [Steve]Thompson, who he said were all still trying to minimise the extent of the problem.”

ODT 21.12.16
– Grady Cameron: ““The accelerated programme uses additional internal and external resources to get the job done quicker. What won’t change are the safety, risk management and work practice measures we have for the safety of workers, contractors and the public.” The programme would prioritise the removal or repair of condition-zero poles close to schools, camping sites and other “high social” areas.”

ODT 24.12.16 ‘Poles spared as condition reassessed’
– “[Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult] asked Aurora to stabilise or replace condition-zero poles in the Queenstown, Wanaka and Arrowtown central business areas before Christmas.”

It’s not just about the poles.

—

Related Posts and Comments:
12.12.16 Deloitte report released #Delta #Aurora
30.12.16 Hilary Calvert on Deloitte report for Aurora/Delta
6.1.17 Message to Aurora/Delta : Upper Clutha dangerous poles DON’T MIX with Holiday Campers

█ For more, enter the terms *delta*, *aurora*, *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.

20 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, Central Otago, Construction, DCC, DCHL, DCTL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Education, Electricity, Finance, Geography, Health, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, NZRU, OAG, Ombudsman, ORFU, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Queenstown Lakes, Resource management, SFO, Sport, Stadiums, Tourism, Town planning, Travesty

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | January 6, 2017 · 9:27 pm

Message to Aurora/Delta : Upper Clutha dangerous poles DON’T MIX with Holiday Campers

Four “condition zero” poles identified in Upper Clutha as needing to be replaced or reinforced before busy holiday period.

Other poles inside camping grounds identified as needing to be checked regularly by Delta staff during same period.

### ODT Online Fri, 6 Jan 2017
Problem power poles getting regular checks
By Tim Miller
Potentially dangerous power poles in Upper Clutha camping grounds are being checked regularly by lines company staff over the holidays. Before Christmas, Aurora Energy identified and checked the condition of poles in what were considered high-traffic holiday areas, such as camping grounds and parks in Upper Clutha. The company consulted the Queenstown Lakes District Council to identify the high traffic areas.
Read more

█ All 1181 condition zero poles in Otago expected to be replaced by April 2017.

****

At Facebook:

—

Related Posts and Comments:
1.1.17 A successful Lines company….
30.12.16 Hilary Calvert on Deloitte report for Aurora/Delta
28.12.16 Just beginning…. inquiries into council company rogues
27.12.16 Michael Lewis : The Undoing Project —Interview… #RNZ
25.12.16 The very idea
22.12.16 What GIVES : Aurora/Delta/DCHL/DCC…Energy Safety…ComCom ??
20.12.16 Aurora/Delta : RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan with Rod Oram
16.12.16 Tim Hunter, NBR —Aurora/Delta, DCC and ComCom
16.12.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 8 —Stuart McLauchlan : contamination, code…
15.12.16 DCHL/Aurora/Delta unravelling
14.12.16 Bev Butler queries invoices for Delta hospitality at Stadium #LGOIMA
14.12.16 Aurora/Delta : Richard Healey on the [SOON departing] CEO
13.12.16 DCHL/Aurora/Delta ‘PR fashion statements’ fb DCC rates increases
12.12.16 Deloitte report released #Delta #Aurora
9.12.16 Deloitte report pending —Public Notice at ODT | Facebook entry
7.12.16 Delta/Aurora : Nobody’s willing to call it after misrepresentations
7.12.16 Audit and Review, Deloitte
3.12.16 Delta/Aurora : The Dirty Twist —EXTREME Misrepresentation…
1.12.16 Oi Grady— “It’s Us, Delta’s Electrical Workforce, unanimously!”
30.11.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 7 : Kyle Cameron —The Money or the Bag?

█ 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.

3 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, Central Otago, Construction, DCC, DCHL, DCTL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Education, Electricity, Finance, Geography, Health, Hot air, Infrastructure, Media, New Zealand, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Queenstown Lakes, Resource management, Site, Tourism, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | December 30, 2016 · 4:45 pm

Hilary Calvert on Deloitte report for Aurora/Delta

ODT 30.12.16 (page 12)

2016-12-30-17-00-18

aurora-webpage-detail-as-at-30-12-16-safety
Aurora – Safety webpage (detail) 30.12.16

WorkSafe New Zealand
Contact WorkSafe 0800 030 040
█ http://www.worksafe.govt.nz/worksafe

Energy Safety
Part of WorkSafe New Zealand, Energy Safety acts as the regulator for ensuring the safe supply and use of electricity and gas in New Zealand. Energy Safety is responsible for providing an effective investigation, compliance, enforcement, and conformance regime for achieving electrical and gas safety outcomes.
█ http://www.energysafety.govt.nz/

Note: On Monday 4 April 2016, the new Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) came into effect. HSWA repeals the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992, with immediate effect.

aurora-delta-bovver-boys-29-11-16-douglas-field-detail‘Delta’ bovver boys by Douglas Field 29.11.16 (detail)

On 19 October 2016 former Delta manager Richard Healey went public about workplace and public safety concerns at Dunedin and across Otago via TV3’s Story (newshub.co.nz).

From 19 October through November posts and comments at What if? Dunedin, including those by Richard Healey, focused on the dangerous network, and poor governance within the council owned companies Aurora/Delta, within the council’s holding company DCHL, and within the duly elected Dunedin City Council itself [relevant trimesters].

The full extent of the dangerous and deliberately degraded network is attributable to criminal negligence and extreme mismanagement of financial resources (public funds).

The young inexperienced chief executive of the companies Aurora/Delta, Grady Cameron, has personally resisted taking any blame for the dangerous network – note, the findings and advice of the 2010 report by LineTech Consulting, commissioned shortly after Cameron’s appointment, have failed to flow into various Asset Management Plans drafted by Aurora, subsequently.

As a result of Richard Healey’s revelations three investigations were to take place:

1. Deloitte report for DCHL (released 12 Dec 2016)
2. Energy Safety (WorkSafe) investigation (no date given for release)
3. Commerce Commission investigation – industry regulator (no date given)

The courts await.

—

I N ● J U S T ● O N E ● M O N T H

Related Posts and Comments:
28.12.16 Just beginning…. inquiries into council company rogues
27.12.16 Michael Lewis : The Undoing Project —Interview… #RNZ
25.12.16 The very idea
22.12.16 What GIVES : Aurora/Delta/DCHL/DCC…Energy Safety…ComCom ??
20.12.16 Aurora/Delta : RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan with Rod Oram
16.12.16 Tim Hunter, NBR —Aurora/Delta, DCC and ComCom
16.12.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 8 —Stuart McLauchlan : contamination, code…
15.12.16 DCHL/Aurora/Delta unravelling
14.12.16 Bev Butler queries invoices for Delta hospitality at Stadium #LGOIMA
14.12.16 Aurora/Delta : Richard Healey on the [SOON departing] CEO
13.12.16 DCHL/Aurora/Delta ‘PR fashion statements’ fb DCC rates increases
12.12.16 Deloitte report released #Delta #Aurora
9.12.16 Deloitte report pending —Public Notice at ODT | Facebook entry
7.12.16 Delta/Aurora : Nobody’s willing to call it after misrepresentations
7.12.16 Audit and Review, Deloitte
3.12.16 Delta/Aurora : The Dirty Twist —EXTREME Misrepresentation…
1.12.16 Oi Grady— “It’s Us, Delta’s Electrical Workforce, unanimously!”
30.11.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 7 : Kyle Cameron —The Money or the Bag?

█ 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.

delta-mobile-substation-willis-st-12-11-16-1-img_1206Mobile substation Willis St, Harbourside 12.11.16 [photo: Christchurch Driver]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

1 Comment

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, Carisbrook, Central Otago, DCC, DCHL, DCTL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Education, Electricity, Finance, Geography, Health, Highlanders, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, NZRU, OAG, Ombudsman, ORFU, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Queenstown Lakes, Resource management, SFO, Site, Sport, Stadiums, Tourism, Town planning, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | December 28, 2016 · 2:33 pm

Dunedin’s Logan Park / Signal Hill Fire Dec 2016 ● Cause unknown

Dunedin man Wayne Baird said flames were “a good 30 or 40 metres high…. It’s a good wind blowing right up the valley. It’s all bush and pine so it’s good fuel.” (Stuff)

28.12.16 Stuff.co.nz at 7:47am
Fire crews at the scene of large fire in Dunedin
By Hamish McNeilly
Fire crews are at the scene of a large fire on Wednesday morning to ensure it remains extinguished. The fire threatened a Dunedin high school and several homes. Patrols stayed on Signal Hill through the night, dampening down hot spots after a bush-clad area half the size of a rugby field on the side of Signal Hill was sparked on Tuesday afternoon. […] The fire was contained by 5.45pm on Tuesday and rural fire crews patrolled the area overnight, a Fire Service spokesman said. “I don’t believe it will spread any more and the chances of evacuation have gone down a lot,” he said.
Read more + Photos/Videos

****

27.12.16 RNZ News at 8:51 p.m.
Three homes evacuated over Dunedin scrub fire
Three homes have been evacuated as a precaution, as firefighters continue to extinguish a large scrub fire in Dunedin. The scrub fire on Signal Hill near Butts Road broke out at about 2.45pm and was fanned by strong winds. Link + Photos

27.12.16 NZ Herald at 7:19 p.m.
Large fire burning on Signal Hill in Dunedin contained
The fire on Signal Hill in Dunedin has been contained, but about 40 firefighters and three helicopters are continuing to fight the blaze. Earlier tonight three homes in Rimu Street, Ravensbourne, were evacuated as a precaution. The occupants of these homes are likely to return tonight. […] Local residents said the fire 10 years ago was worse. Link + Video

27.12.16 TVNZ 1 News at 5:47 p.m.
Fire on Dunedin’s Signal Hill now contained, cause still unknown
A large scrub fire in Dunedin is now contained, after it began earlier this afternoon. Forty firefighters and four helicopters are at the scene on Signal Hill behind Logan Park High School in North Dunedin. A Fire Service spokesperson says they were called to the fire just before 3pm. They say the blaze is now contained but not extinguished, and they expect to work all night dampening it down. Link + Video

****

Otago Daily Times

28.12.16 Hillside ablaze in Dunedin [photos]
28.12.16 Fire crews on watch overnight [story, video and photos]
27.12.16 Ravensbourne evacuees likely to return home [story, videos and photos]

Otago Daily Times Published on Dec 27, 2016
Emergency services attend a large fire at Signal Hill
Emergency services, including three helicopters with monsoon buckets, attend a large fire at Signal Hill.

Otago Daily Times Published on Dec 27, 2016
Fire at Signal Hill
Video: Vaugan Elder

Otago Daily Times Published on Dec 27, 2016
Fire on Signal Hill from Logan Park
Fire on Signal Hill from Logan Park High School.

****

TEN YEARS AGO

In late October 2006, bush fires caused extensive damage to forest plantations on the western slopes of Signal Hill. The series of fires forced DCC to close the Signal Hill Reserve indefinitely.

****

HISTORICAL

ODT: Opinion: 100 Years Ago (re-published on 9 Oct 2014)
A great fire
Under the influence of the heavy north-west gale which blew yesterday the smouldering fires which are stated to have started on the Leith-Waitati saddle about last Tuesday and travelled to Mount Cargill burst into vivid flames, which spread with great rapidity. The warm winds which have been experienced since Tuesday – at first from the south-west and yesterday from the north-east – have had a drying effect on the grass, and, the fire once fully alight, soon spread in all directions. Yesterday fires were observed on Mount Cargill, on Signal Hill, and on the hill above Logan’s quarry, and vast clouds of smoke drifted from these across the harbour, in places quite blotting out the view. Fortunately the fire above the quarry did not live long, while that at Signal Hill also appeared late in the afternoon to have burnt itself out. On the Leith-Waitati saddle and Mount Cargill, however, a different tale has to be told. Read more

ODT: Opinion: 100 Years Ago (re-published on 11 Oct 2014)
Flames thwarted
Fortunately the flames of the Leith-Mt Cargill-Waitati Saddle fire did not demolish any dwellings, and the actual damage suffered by settlers, apart from the loss of timber, was, as far as could be ascertained, very slight, considering the magnitude of the fire. The loss of timber was the greatest suffered by anyone, and a good deal of valuable wood was destroyed. A few sheds and small huts were also wiped out of existence, and a length of tramway belonging to a sawmiller and an odd haystack was burned. The timber destroyed was the real loss, and it is difficult to estimate its value. However, it must be considerable. […] In a few places telegraph poles were burnt, but no damage was done sufficiently serious to interfere greatly with communication. The most irreparable damage is that to the scenic reserves, which have suffered very badly. A patch of bush at Upper Waitati between the Saddle and Pine Hill, owned by the Dunedin City Council and the Scenic Preservation Commissioners, was attacked, and many acres of it have been ruined.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

8 Comments

Filed under Dunedin, Events, Fire and Emergency NZ, Geography, Media, New Zealand, People, Property, Public interest, Site

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | December 16, 2016 · 7:55 am

Delta #EpicPowerFail 8 —Stuart McLauchlan : contamination, code brown and farting in church

farting-dog-by-mark-cable

Received from Christchurch Driver [CD]
Fri, 16 Dec 2016 at 1:04 a.m.

Your correspondent has been spending some time in airport bookstores recently, and it is hard to escape the plethora of get-a-plan-and-get-your-life-in-order books that seem to breed like unwanted spawn in such places.

While your correspondent has no truck with such boilerplate muck, he will admit to a quiet sense of satisfaction this week of some goals achieved. It is a good thing to have a goal, and a plan to get there. This year, your correspondent was disgusted by the arrogant lawlessness and simply fantastic level of self interest and waste of public funds by DCC and DCHL directors at the Noble subdivision, Yaldhurst. He made it a goal to put his shoulder to directorial posteriors and assist in the push of the dismal Delta directors into the Delta wood chipper (leased of course). Aided by some insider knowledge (what? – reveal my sources – never !) and plenty of tangential side trips, your correspondent is proud to think he has helped (in some small way) What if? and the majestic Richard Healey achieve a clean out at Aurora and Delta.

This week’s dismissal of Parton and McLauchlan is the start, and more will follow.

Mr McLauchlan’s risible statements in the ODT yesterday show your correspondent was 100% correct when he predicted that blame would be sheeted home to That Bad Man, John Walsh.

Mr McLauchlan’s arrogance was in full view with his claims that his decision to step down was unrelated to the billion dollar problem he has co-authored. Mr McLauchlan cannot admit what all of Dunedin knows – he troughed literally while lines exploded, and failed as a director. To do so would jeopardise his other sinecures, and Mr McLauchlan is nothing but self interest. Mr McLauchlan had absolutely nothing to offer the DCC, Delta or DCHL, and we should be at least grateful to Mayor Cull that the scales appear to have finally have fallen from his eyes and he sees Mr McLauchlan for what he is.

Let us not forget the most telling example of Mr McLauchlan’s invertebratedness : In the 2007 directorial decision to waste $8-9M at Luggate Mr McLauchlan’s sole contribution was : “If the other directors agree the I agree”. Not forgetting also that in the case of the Scenic Circle Dunedin City legal dispute with the JV partner, Mr McLauchlan was found by the Court to be an unreliable witness.

Mr McLauchlan is so toxic he doesn’t just need to be signposted, he is a walking talking accounting contamination.

On the subject of contamination, Kyle Cameron – stand up and take a bow, Kyle Cameron! – has made it very sure that Grady Cameron will never lead either of Delta or Aurora, by recommending that they need separate CEOs. As Mr Healey has said, the board will do to Grady what he has done to many others – disestablished their positions, creating new roles, and of course Grady will not quite have the “most appropriate skill sets” for either role. Sorry about that old chap, terribly close call of course, better luck next time– (in another continent please).
Grady, you have just been right-sized.

Another right-sizing would be to appoint Kyle Cameron to the Aurora board, and remove former ORFU/Highlanders director Mr Thompson with links to the $5M ORFU pokies scandal. Mr Thompson is tight with Mr McLauchlan of course, Mr McLauchlan being the Chairman of the Highlanders at the time the South Auckland pokies scandal was in full swing. McLauchlan – scandal – bees – honey.

Not right-sized, of course, is the matter of the Aurora replacement budget. We all know – now – that Aurora were going to spend $443M in deferred maintenance over 10 years (yes, stop dissembling Grady, it’s $443M, not $417M, but what they haven’t set out is where the money is coming from. Lines charges are fixed, and in very, very broad terms if we, the ratepayers, have to spend $443M to basically maintain what we have – then the very big question is – what is the depreciated, deteriorated asset worth …right now?

[An alarming example that comes to mind is the DCC purchase of the Dunedin Railway Station in the early 1990s. A wonderful asset now (pity about the decks) after a number of millions have gone into its restoration and upkeep over a 10-12 year period ….but what did the DCC pay ? ….the answer ? precisely one dollar.]

Now the Aurora 2016 Annual Report says in its headline “Trend Summary” (aka the good news feel-good piece early in the report at page 12) is that the ratepayers have equity of $183M in Aurora, and equity to assets is 42.1%, but unsurprisingly (this is Grady and the gyroscope we are dealing with here) the very bad news – the debt is $253M and is not going away – doesn’t quite make it into the good news piece.

So if we are charitable and assume that only say $250M of the $443M is actually for direct Dunedin infrastructure renewal and the balance being for actual expanded capacity then, then $250M of shareholder equity is needed for the upgrade. But wait Batman ! We only have $185M of equity. Holy exploding potheads Batman !! What do we do ? Batman: Elementary, my dear Doctor Parton —In the immortal words of Christine Fletcher, mayor of Auckland in 1986 when asked the same question by Fletcher Construction (of the cost to finish the Aotea Centre), “That’s what the ratepayers are for.”

Readers, you might well be thinking at this stage, CD has it wrong again – when I put in a new kitchen and bathroom in my villa in Belleknowes, it was worth more, so it didn’t matter that there was more debt ….because the asset was worth more. However, the value of power networks is determined by the Commerce Commission, who regulate what amounts each network can charge ….based on the value of the asset. Your correspondent surmises that the next scandal to unfold at Aurora is that resident Delta toxicologist, Matt Ballard of Capability and Risk, has overseen a massive overstating of the present value of the network. The bottom line is : with $250 – $400M of work needed FOR MAINTENANCE, ie NOT GENERATING EXTRA CAPACITY, it is worth nowhere near $436M right now. What does that mean? It means, readers, that the “jewel in the crown” of the DCHL, our cash cow HAS NO SHAREHOLDER EQUITY and has 100% debt to equity. Hilary Calvert is correct – if this were DC Ross, or any other private company, the receivers would have been called in long ago. However, accountants like the caustic Mr McLauchlan prefer companies with no shareholder equity because the returns on equity are out of this world…. until something happens.

Readers, what dissembling Mayor Cull will never tell you is that just like in Central Otago, as helpfully described by Nick Loughnan in the ODT a few weeks ago, you are about to experience in your future either some eye watering rates increases or, if the Commerce Commission allows, some similar exponential line charge increases. It’s one or the other. There is no other way.

Mayor Cull is aware of the consequences set out above : he said at the outset of Mr Healey’s crusade that he did not want public confidence shaken.

The questions or scenarios above are not pleasant – as the biblical line goes, these are hard questions, who can answer them ? They are the lines industry equivalent of farting in church – rude, inappropriate but better to get it out in the open before there is a big mess (or at least know the mess is coming). Yes, the air will be blue for a while – a long while. Messrs McLauchlan, Parton, Kempton, Frow, Wood, Thompson have done more than farted, they have created a stinking “code brown” mess. They will not be missed.

[ends]

*Note: New Zealand Companies Office records show McLauchlan and Parton ceased being directors of the Aurora/Delta Boards on 12 December 2016.
Aurora Energy | Delta Utility Services

Legal advice to the DCC on new 3-term limits for CCO directorships ‘may have’ forced this change. Debatable.

█ 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.

*Image: markeweebly.com – farting dog by mark cable, tweaked by whatifdunedin

16 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, Central Otago, Corruption, DCC, DCHL, DCTL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Education, Electricity, Finance, Geography, Health, Highlanders, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, NZRU, OAG, Ombudsman, ORFU, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Queenstown Lakes, Resource management, SFO, Sport, Stadiums, Town planning, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | November 4, 2016 · 5:31 am

Delta #EpicPowerFail 6 – Thick as a Brick

gary-larson-the-far-side-1-3-tweaked-by-whatifdunedin-pinimg-com

Received from Christchurch Driver [CD]
Thu, 3 Nov 2016 at 10:59 p.m.

Thick as a brick
Shallow as a bird bath
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer
A few sandwiches short of a picnic
Bought his doctorate online.

Come in Dr Parton….

Your correspondent was both entertained and aghast this morning when enjoying Choysa and a scone, he read Dr Parton, Aurora chair, dutifully parroting Grady Cameron’s lines in the ODT …. “aged network”, “our approach to its management is conservative”. Dr (Polly) Parton also said “it was “not appropriate” for him to respond to comments made by another chairman”. Your correspondent agrees it is not “appropriate”. It is essential to his credibility to do so, as Polly Parton is right – it is amazing that the chairman of a lines company, far away, has felt the need to make scathing comments about the lackadaisical approach to essential infrastructure he has found in the South, and called Aurora’s response “a lame excuse”. When did you last hear the CEO of a council make scathing comments about another ? —or one mayor disparage another in biting terms. It just isn’t done…. so now the attention of the entire lines industry, and the Commerce Commission is riveted upon Aurora as it has just been confirmed by the chair of Marlborough Lines, with no axe to grind, that Aurora’s mess and subsequent evasions are inexcusable.

Some other gems of the re-cycled obvious from Polly in the ODT were “Age … is one reason why we have marked so many poles for replacement” – how fascinating that the board and Mr Cameron only discovered these 40- to 60-year-old poles were aged and needed replacement around the time Mr Healey left three weeks ago.

Readers, while Aurora and Delta have an arrogant disregard for the interest of the consumers and ratepayers, they are very fearful of the Commerce Commission. And the Commerce Commission is under no illusions about the incompetence of Aurora. Not only did Aurora get warned for network failures this year, and are now ranked in the bottom 3 of the 29 lines companies for reliability, they were also warned about their lack of investment and incompetence in 2014 by the Commission.

On 26 June 2014 the Commission wrote to Aurora issuing them with a warning for non-compliance and raising concerns. They said:

“21. There are a number of concerns that we would particularly like to draw to Aurora’s attention … These concerns are:

21.1 Aurora’s vegetation control has been insufficient to prevent significant tree encroachment on lines, which has likely contributed to the frequency and duration of outages….”
Mr Cameron took great delight in waxing lyrical about the dedicated vegetation management unit Delta set up in 2015-16, and how Delta charged Aurora $4M for clearing 34km of lines. We now know it wasn’t anything to do with Mr Cameron, it was forced upon them by the Commerce Commission because they had neglected it for decades. In true Delta form, the cost of $130,000 per km is probably overstated by a factor of 5-10 dependent on difficulty.

“21.2 Aurora has had an increase in defective equipment incidents”.
Oh yes. Aurora’s own Asset Management Plan (AMP) spells out the failures, and impending ones, as noted in #EpicPowerFail 5. In relation to poles, Aurora reduced the number of poles it was going to replace in 2017-18, in its 2016-2026 plan, due to the mendacity of Matt Ballard, GM Capability & Risk. Reacting to public pressure and casting aside the long term plan due to a “perception problem”, without a funding plan in place is just giving the Commerce Commission all the evidence they need that the board isn’t in control and doesn’t know what it’s doing.

“21.3 There seems to be shortcomings in Aurora’s knowledge of its asset condition”.
….(Translated from bureaucratic-ese, this is : YOU ARE USELESS AND INCOMPETENT, and everything we have heard from Aurora recently confirms that this fault has become exponentially worse.

“21.4 Aurora’s reliance on its 6.6kV network as a back up to its aging 33kV cables in Dunedin could lead to major power outages.”

Ominously for the Directors, the Commission was clear about the consequences of further non-compliance, warning Aurora :

“Notwithstanding its 2013 and 2014 compliance, if Aurora fails to comply with the quality standards again, its 2012 non-compliance will be a relevant factor that may lead us towards a stronger enforcement response. Particularly relevant would be the extent to which concerns raised following Aurora’s 2012 non-compliance contributed to the second non-compliance.”

Here we are, four years later, and 3 of the 4 concerns are front and centre of the latest crisis. A lot of words have been written, meetings held, and plans begun, but the network has continued to decline. Unless the Commerce Commission has another spineless apologist like Rebstock of the Audit Office investigating, then the springs in the boardroom ejector seats are tightening.

Readers, we are all frustrated that Mr Cameron, Mr Ballard, and the directors have not a thread of integrity left among them, preferring eventual forcible removal (health problems anyone ?) to decency. But readers, how delicious will it be when they are kicked out, as that will almost certainly be the end of all of their directorial ambitions. Getting kicked out by the Government is the sort of thing that even the Institute of Directors would frown upon, despite overlooking a lot of other venality. As noted at What if?, the Government cannot afford to have tourists killed or suffering from power outages in their #1 tourist region in Central Otago, so it will not be open for Mr McLauchlan to go crawling to Minister Woodhouse, who doesn’t carry a lot of weight now in any case. McLauchlan’s other great fixer, fellow South Canterbury Finance trougher, Denham Shale, is now dead. Mr McLauchlan feeling the chilled air of exposure perhaps ? Perversely, we can be glad that Messrs Parton, Kempton, Thompson, McLauchlan and Frow are all….“thick as a brick”.

Final thought for the evening. If you were Grady Cameron and the board, and wanted to quickly replace 10,000 poles to “restore public confidence” then does buying steel poles from China that are made from less ductile steel (ie more brittle) sound like a good plan ? (Chinese steel is typically 20-25% ductile, whereas NZ seismic requirements generally require 32-34% ductility. It is near impossible to get Chinese steel at this ductility. A recent example is the problems with steel products imported from China by Steel & Tube). Yes readers, you heard it here first, not only did Mr Cameron fail to tell you where the $30M was coming from (they don’t know yet), he also neglected to mention they are buying steel poles from China. And remember, readers, not only did Mr Cameron describe this as “a good plan” on National Radio, but that he “was excited by it”. Truly…… “thick as a brick”.

[ends]

—

Related Posts and Comments:
2.11.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 5 : Grady Cameron on RNZ : How many Asset Management Plans does it take to get a Real One ?
1.11.16 Delta/Aurora/DCHL corporate whitewash #dangerousnetwork
31.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 4 : Delta/Aurora, Drugs and Dividends
29.10.16 Mr Crombie, not quite the spent force
28.10.16 Heads of Delta/ Aurora/ DCHL/ DCC out to lunch
27.10.16 Bev Butler says ‘Come in, Grady’ #LGOIMA #Delta
27.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 3 : Rotten Poles and Greedy Algorithms
25.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 2 : Plaudits to Saunders & Elder : Delta…
22.10.16 DCC struggles with Governance…. Delta/Aurora/DCHL…
21.10.16 Dunedin City Council must hang the companies out to dry
20.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail : Delta fulfils Adam Smith’s 1776 Prophecy
19.10.16 Grady Cameron and Graham Crombie : Eyes tightly shut #FAIL
13.10.16 COMPLETE Dis-satisfaction with DCC, DCHL, DVML, DVL, Delta….
9.6.16 Aurora Energy Ltd warned by regulator

█ For more, enter the terms *delta*, *aurora*, *epic fraud* or *dchl* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: pinimg.com – gary larson the far side, tweaked

11 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, DCC, DCHL, DCTL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Events, Finance, Geography, Health, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, OAG, Ombudsman, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Resource management, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | November 2, 2016 · 4:42 am

Delta #EpicPowerFail 5 : Grady Cameron on RNZ : How many Asset Management Plans does it take to get a Real One ?

rnz-logo-1Tue, 1 Nov 2016 7:50 a.m.
Morning Report with Guy Espiner Link
Hefty pricetag to replace Dunedin’s rotting power poles
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (duration 3′40″)
Dunedin and Central Otago power company Aurora Energy is to replace 3-thousand rotting power poles at a cost of 30-million dollars.

****

guyon-espiner-radionz-co-nz-grady-cameron-odt-co-nz-merge-1

Received from Christchurch Driver [CD]
Tue, 1 Nov 2016 at 11:35 p.m.

Readers, your correspondent has nothing new to offer tonight —but just many examples of what we already knew : Delta/Aurora chief excutive Grady Cameron treats the facts with almost radioactive distaste, and is completely willing to say and do anything to save his own skin. Now, we have a “polemic” of evidence.
Rob Hamlin is correct – there is a massive coverup underway. Let us consider Mr Cameron’s cancerous comments on RNZ with Guyon Espiner today :

The new Aurora plan with an extra $26M was ‘nothing to do with Richard Healey’ ….The board already had a plan in place because “back in September I went to the board and advised them that I wasn’t happy with the progress of our current plan in terms of how fast we were getting through the replacement programme” …. and “the plan that was announced yesterday was the revised plan”.

Now there are several obvious problems here, and the first is Mr Cameron’s mealy-mouthed dissembling that “back in September” he went to the board. September was only 5 weeks ago, and, just 4-5 weeks or so before that, in April 2016, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Mr Cameron released Aurora’s long term Asset Management Plan (AMP), all 185 pages of it for the period 2016-2026. The specific purpose of this doorstop is to schedule “asset replacement”, and the plan of course specifically provides for pole replacement. Mr Cameron is asking us to believe that the very next week after the 10-year AMP was complete, he woke up and thought ‘Good grief ! We have completely messed up the asset management plan we have just had the board sign off, and which we have just spent months on ! We must re-do it immediately and add $20-30M to pole replacement ! That is Job #1 Today…. (after mid morning madeira cake and my daily PR strategy meeting). Readers, there are many at Delta who will confirm that Mr Cameron’s GM of Capability & Risk Matt Ballard, was instructing staff the exact opposite…. “that under no circumstances is the current $2.96M budget for pole replacement to be exceeded, for ANY reason, and GET USED TO IT”.

aurora-asset-management-plan-april-2016-march-2026-front-coverIn the fantastic event that there is any shred of truth to this rubbish from Mr Cameron, he needs to be sacked for incompetence, because he has just shown he is incapable of producing an asset management plan that is credible or even somewhat reliable. It is so bad that Mr Cameron could be accused of numeric dyslexia. How can a board comprised of accountants, to whom forecasts and numbers are religion, put up with this ? Is it because Mr Cameron has promised them Mutually Assured Destruction if he was removed? There is plenty of evidence and emails to show that far from wanting to resolve this, Mr Cameron and his enablers wanted to play the man and sweep this under the rug, an approach that continues to the present day.   

Your correspondent has received information that provides the translation code for Grady Cameron’s weasel worded dissembling “back in September I went to the board … not happy with the progress”. It is this : Mr Cameron advised the board ‘We employed incompetent staff who claimed they could “reinforce” poles for around $1200 each, to give a maximum 10-year extra life, but this $1,200 was a figure pulled from their own fevered imaginations and staff and contractors have told us to take a hike, it will cost around $3,000, which compares VERY unfavourably with the cost of a straightforward new pole with a 50-year life at around $5,000. Being the desperate incompetents we are, we had latched onto this half-baked and untested theory like a barnacle on a boat hull and assumed we could reinforce more than twice as many poles as we needed to replace over 10 years. (7290 reinforcements vs actually replacing just 3381 poles).’ (Readers, see Page 78 of the Aurora AMP). ‘If we do a half-baked reinforcement approach we have another budget problem of $13M, but if we put in all new poles we will have a blowout of around $28M (over and above the apples vs oranges $26M issue I deceived the board about earlier).’

Grady Cameron confidently stated to the nation that the plan unveiled yesterday “was the revised plan” (the board had approved)…. For about three seconds, and then when queried by Guyon Espiner incredulously “so nothing at all to do with Richard Healey ?”, Mr Cameron went into high range reverse and forward mode – at the same time. He responded “NO…. the plan that we’ve we put forward is a more aggressive plan now….” due to “a significant amount of public scrutiny”. Memo to Mr Cameron : The public scrutiny only started because Richard Healey broke ranks and blew the whistle, to the cost of his career.

Your correspondent thinks that Grady Cameron is also fevered and mainlining on dividends. If Mr Cameron was telling the truth, that he had concerns, and a plan that very coincidentally was the same as Richard Healey’s then why did he cancel the meeting with Richard Healey who wanted to discuss his concerns about the state of the network ? He should have been saluting a fellow soldier, not burying him…. Instead of refusing to meet with him, why did Mr Cameron discuss taking legal action against Richard Healey when Mr Healey was still an employee of Delta ? (Yes we know about this Mr Cameron, you have very few allies left within Delta —perhaps you should be looking next to you and channelling Shakespeare ….et tu, Matt Ballard?). Instead of cancelling the meeting, why did he not send an email to say, ‘Dear Richard, I have some fantastic news, all or most of your concerns are solved, we are going to be announcing a huge increase in pole spending of tens of millions of dollars immediately (just as soon as I can arrange the requisite saturation PR coverage that portrays me in the best possible light and take the focus off the Noble debacle). I would be delighted to meet with you for 3.5 minutes at 10.36am after mid-morning espresso and madeira cake to outline this to you. Your humble CEO, Grady.’  

homesafe-logo-thinkdelta-co-nz[thinkdelta.co.nz] 

It is often the little things that give the game away…. And try as they might, the PR minders can never control the interview process. Grady Cameron spent several minutes explaining to the country how this was just a misunderstanding and he had – before Richard Healey (!), realised what was wrong, and he and the board had a plan to fix the very things that Mr Healey was complaining about. Guyon Espiner asked near the end, “Do you thank Richard Healey for putting pressure on you for this ?” ie for helping Grady Cameron receive great exposure in the media to explain his hitherto secret new plan to the nation, very similar to Mr Healey’s, that all was well, the network was aged but safe, lots of poles were being replaced. Instead of “Come back Richard, my fellow safety conscious soldier in arms, all is forgiven,” we and the country heard his CEO mask slip and got the real, petulant Grady Cameron who snarled “No I don’t thank Richard Healey” —proving that this was all just a charade, and Mr Cameron and the board were ropeable that they had been exposed as ineffectual and incompetent guardians of the region’s electricity network.     

Continuing down the charade theme, consider this final thought for the evening, readers – Cameron, Crombie, and the board of accountants announced this plan WITHOUT ONE CLUE AS TO HOW IT IS TO BE FUNDED. This is sheer arrogance and disdain for power consumers and ratepayers – what other public expenditure of this level has ever been announced with no discussion about who or how it will be funded. The board of Delta and Aurora have proven yet again, how incompetent and derelict in their public duty they have become.

[ends]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Images: radionz.co.nz – Guyon Espiner | odt.co.nz – Grady Cameron

27 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, DCC, DCHL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Events, Finance, Geography, Health, Hot air, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, OAG, Ombudsman, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Resource management, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | November 1, 2016 · 11:55 am

Delta/Aurora/DCHL corporate whitewash #dangerousnetwork

Updated post
Tue, 1 Nov 2016 at 3:30 p.m.

Anyone of sound mind will see that, as widely predicted, a vacuous tissue of lies and fabrication has flooded the media, with a SUDDEN dollop of RATES spend foretold – dished by the Ugly wide boys to the sound of chortles in repair from Our Enchained Melody (his worship).

ODT didn’t believe it either.

But those wheeling creatures.
Douglas Field starts in gently….

Satirical comment on the future of a Dunedin ‘owned’ utility company, and its imminent demise. Oct 31, 2016

****

Loss of “public confidence”…. [understatement]

In an interview, Mr Cull said he had no problem with spending an extra $26 million to fix a public perception issue.

### ODT Online Tue, 1 Nov 2016
$30.25m to replace poles
By Vaughan Elder
Aurora Energy has approved a $30.25 million programme to replace close to 3000 power poles but its chief executive is refusing to admit any fault over the way the network has been managed. Aurora Energy and Delta chief executive Grady Cameron […] said the claims that led to the loss of confidence – that lives were at risk from dangerous power poles and the two council-owned companies put profits ahead of health and safety – were wrong. He admitted no fault in his management, saying the network was ageing, but safe.
Read more

“My only wish is that he had taken the opportunity to come and speak to me directly, because I think if he had recognised the conversations that I was having with the board directly, he might have felt slightly different about what our plans were.” –Grady Cameron

Whistleblower Richard Healey was stunned by Mr Cameron’s response and questioned why Aurora would spend tens of millions of dollars to fix an issue which it said did not exist. “It’s utter rubbish,” Mr Healey said. […] He had tried to stay away from “personal” attacks, but was now willing to call on Mr Cameron to “man up” and resign.

—

T R U T H F U L ● R E A D I N G

Comments posted at this website the day after Story (TV3 Newshub 19.10.16) broke the news about Delta/Aurora’s dangerous poles:

Richard Healey
October 20, 2016 at 8:46 am
Thanks for the support, it’s been a difficult few years, but the last few weeks have been the worst. Here’s a clip from a post I made on Facebook to give my former colleagues some background. My primary concern in all of this has been to keep everyone safe. No more tragedies like the death of Roger Steel.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I appreciate the support but I really had no option. In the last six years I’ve seen live high voltage lines sit on the ground for two days in the grounds of a major tourist attraction – and another set alive 600mm off the ground inside a property where you can look over the fence and see a yard full of kids toys.
I’ve seen thousands of poles that could kill my work mates, and I’ve seen one of them die on one of those poles.
In the past 15 months I’ve watched as the number of those really dodgy structures has increased by more than 1000. The crunch came for me when I realised that probably 2000 of those poles should have been fitted with “warning, DO NOT CLIMB” tags – but they were missing.
Discovering those missing tags made my gut churn. In December 2010 Roger Steel, one of the world’s good buggers died after climbing a pole that was missing a red tag. Both the District Court and the Coroner cited the missing danger tag as a significant factor in Steelo’s death.
The obvious thing to do first was to put out a safety alert to Delta staff. I was told not to do that, my voice was seen as too negative and, in any case, it was the asset management team’s role to put out the alert. I was asked to get one of the other guys to request that an alert be sent out urgently.
I kept pushing for the alert to go out, at that stage I thought around 1000 poles were affected. Nothing happened. Finally, I got the opportunity to raise the issue in an operations meeting. I was told that the Network Operations Manager would write an alert. Scot Jefferries pointed out that I’d written one already but was ignored. He pointed out a second time that an alert had already been drafted. Eventually I was asked to send through my alert and informed that it would be used as the basis of the final release.
Here’s where it gets really disturbing, This is what I said in my Safety Alert:
“During a recent ICAM it became apparent that a large number of poles (probably less than 1000) have been tested and been found to be “Condition 1” – but no red tag has been applied to them”
This is what the alert that the company issued said:
“It was identified during a recent ICAM that some poles assessed as being defective may not have been Red tagged in accordance with Aurora procedures.”
“Have been found” turned into “may not” – “probably less than 1000” turned into “some poles”. The effect is pretty obvious, the guys were free to believe that a few poles might not have been tagged as opposed to a 1000-odd were definitely not tagged. I was pretty upset.
But it got worse, we sent crews out to apply the missing tags. Asset Management found out that we were doing that and told us to stop. They were creating a software tool to capture the data about what poles we were applying the tags to. We pointed out that we were capturing the poles and the tagging teams were logging all the data on a form which they signed. No problem you might think, the data can be loaded into the new software from the forms when it is eventually developed.
Problem, we were told to stop immediately and that we wouldn’t be paid for the work; when asked to put it in writing, they did!
Then it got worse. While out looking for a site to install some equipment I found a pole that the GIS (the system that holds all the information about the plant that makes up the network) said was Condition 5 (good for many decades) had a red tag on it. The red tag was legitimate, that pole was buggered.
It was then that I figured out that the data that the pole inspectors had gathered was being reassessed, after some software changes, and that the the condition ratings of hundreds of poles had been changed as a result. I wrote some notes. Here’s a sample (condition 0 means so bad you must replace it in 3 months, condition 6 is essentially a brand new pole):
“Pole 12680
This 72% degraded, 44 year old pole was Deuar tested on 19/06/2015, rated as condition 0 and red tagged. It also carries a remaining life assessment of 30 years. One week later it was reassessed and the rating went from 0 to 6. One month after that it was again reassessed and went from condition 6 to condition 1. Finally, on 19/08/2015 the condition assessment went from 1 to condition 6. ”
Those notes were taken to the CEO, he cancelled the meeting. I wrote to him, he has never replied, I quit, we are here today.

Richard Healey
October 20, 2016 at 8:57 am
I forgot to mention it, but on my last day at Delta two more poles fell down, both in Alexandra area. It looks to me like the company has failed to tag around two thousand poor condition poles, but the final number won’t be known until the end of the month. That’s the bad news, the good news is that crews are out there now nailing those tags to poles all over Dunedin and Central Otago.
My advice is this, if you’re dropping your kids off at school and notice the poles outside have suddenly sprouted red “do not climb” tags then ring Delta and ask about the condition of those poles and the risk they may pose to you and your kids. If a red tag suddenly appears on the pole outside your house, do the same thing.
Don’t be put off with a standard “the company takes your wellbeing very seriously” answer. Ask for specific information, when was the problem first identified, how long does Aurora have under the Electricity Safety regulations 2010, regulation 41 to replace the structure, what do I need to do to stay safe, what are the penalties that apply if Aurora fails in its primary duty of care?

—

Related Posts and Comments:
31.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 4 : Delta/Aurora, Drugs and Dividends
29.10.16 Mr Crombie, not quite the spent force
28.10.16 Heads of Delta/ Aurora/ DCHL/ DCC out to lunch
27.10.16 Bev Butler says ‘Come in, Grady’ #LGOIMA #Delta
27.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 3 : Rotten Poles and Greedy Algorithms
25.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 2 : Plaudits to Saunders & Elder : Delta…
22.10.16 DCC struggles with Governance…. Delta/Aurora/DCHL…
21.10.16 Dunedin City Council must hang the companies out to dry
20.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail : Delta fulfils Adam Smith’s 1776 Prophecy
19.10.16 Grady Cameron and Graham Crombie : Eyes tightly shut #FAIL
13.10.16 COMPLETE Dis-satisfaction with DCC, DCHL, DVML, DVL, Delta….
9.6.16 Aurora Energy Ltd warned by regulator

█ For more, enter the terms *delta*, *aurora*, *epic fraud* or *dchl* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

12 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, DCC, DCHL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Events, Finance, Geography, Health, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, OAG, Ombudsman, ORFU, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Resource management, Site, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 31, 2016 · 3:41 am

Delta #EpicPowerFail 4 : Delta/Aurora, Drugs and Dividends

from-grand-theft-otto-series-homer-danny-luvisi-pinterest-com-1

Received from Christchurch Driver [CD]
Sun, 30 Oct 2016 at 9:09 p.m.

Readers, your correspondent has decided that the present Delta/Aurora situation has many similarities to a drug deal gone wrong.

Grady Cameron and Matt Ballard have a drug problem, and the drug concerned is dividends. They are being stood over by their directorial pimps, Stuart McLauchlan, Trevor Kempton, Ian Parton, David Frow and ex ORFU beat-up specialist Steve Thompson (who are also heavy users of the dividends concerned), to produce more, more, more, every year. Despite the intimidation from the pimps, and threats of financial violence (if you don’t meet the most important KPI being $9.5M of dividends, no salary increase for you !), they bought themselves some breathing space, for a year or two, but down at the street corner (where the poles are !), Messrs Cameron and Ballard stopped looking after the infrastructure that laid the golden eggs of revenue a long time ago and stiff-armed them instead. The result ? – the “network” concerned voted with their cross-arms and simply “fell away” ….but who are the pimps working for ? Who has the raging dividend habit ? Who is the junkie that like all junkies, will engage in lies, fraud, misrepresentation as grist to its mill to feed its dividend habit ? It is of course the atrophied and hollowed out financial wreck that is the Forsyth Barr Stadium, that has a 40-year $7.2M dividend drug habit that it needs and feeds on for survival. Who allows this habit to continue and feeds off it also ? Mayor Cull, the Pablo Escobar of Portobello Rd.

While on the subject of addictive behaviour, Vaughan Elder and Chris Morris will also soon have a drinking problem, because from Saturday every time they venture into a bar, they will be shouted a drink by all Dunedinites that live or walk by a rotten power pole (all of them). The Otago Daily Times (ODT) had a flood of coverage and it was excellent, including a precise summary of the recent dismal Delta and Aurora history. Book your flights to the national media awards now guys. Hopefully this is the virtuous circle in action – excellent coverage, more ODTs and advertising sold, more resources given to the story, more revelations, more ODTs sold. Your correspondent has been proven to be very wrong in his earlier #EpicPowerFail post. Far from being missing in action, after a late start they are all over the issue, and instead of making us sick they are making us proud. Go ODT !!

Today your correspondent was alarmed at the offhand comment made by Pablo Escobar’s DCHL sideman, Mr Crombie, when he said in response to being grilled by the ODT that “the financial effects of replacing thousands of poles could be managed by changes to the timing of Aurora’s planned capital programme”.

There are two very important questions that arise from this – 1) How much will the replacement of the poles cost, and 2) what items of Aurora’s capital programme can be deferred.

odt-30-10-16Dealing with 2) first, Mr Crombie must have been mainlining on dividends and as high as a kite when he said this. Either that or there was a forlorn attempt at some more quarter truths and a desperate hope that the long term Aurora Asset Management Plan 2016-2026 (AMP) might disappear from the Internet. Your correspondent, fortified with a LOT of Bells did some heavy lifting through the 185-page document and can report the following pearls from Aurora’s own AMP that show that Mr Crombie, like so many addicts, is delusional :

Firstly, in the space of one year from 2015 to 2016, the state of the network (without the recent revelations) was so knackered that even with the best attempts of Matt Ballard, the Delta ‘General Manager for Risk and Capability’, to minimise capex by various sleights of hand, including the famous algorithms outlined in #EpicPowerFail 3, the amount of capital spending required ballooned – in the space of a year – from $373M to $443M, an increase of $70M. (AMP, 7.1 Financial Forecasts). Incredibly, Mr Cameron and the Board indulged in misrepresentation by reporting to DCHL that the total 10-year capital spending increase was only $417M, not $443M, by the simple and dishonest expedient of comparing
two different 10-year periods. This piece of elementary financial alchemy clearly escaped Mr Crombie and the other DCHL directorial head nodders also.

Councillors, please remember that Mr Crombie is going to lecture you in a month or two that you Must Lend $13.2M as a second mortgage to a shell company, Infinity Yaldhurst, with no visible means of support, because There Is No Alternative. It is clear from the above he either cannot read an elementary spreadsheet, or considers an error of around $26M of ratepayer funds trifling and not worthy of comment or correction. Coincidentally, this is the amount of the Yaldhurst debt. Not coincidentally, Mr Crombie doesn’t think $13M of ratepayer funds written off at Yaldhurst is significant or comment-worthy either. Where do we find these people ? You have been warned, Councillors.

To justify this sudden $70M increase in spending, the asset management plan helpfully provided some explanations of the scope of the work, and why it was urgent, which is going to haunt Mr Crombie, hopefully all the way to resignation. On Page 160, Aurora explained that “half of the increase is associated with deferred zone substation expenditure for which there is no further opportunity for deferral”.

In the next five years (2020-2022), there is $29M allocated for rebuilding worn out substations in Dunedin (Andersons Bay, Neville St, Smith St, Willowbank) that cannot be deferred. The reason that the substations are not being rebuilt before 2020 is because the major 11kV / 3kV lines that serve the substations are in even worse shape than the very aged substations built in the 1950s and early 1960s. The cables are already failing and have to be replaced even before the substations. Page 156 of the AMP helpfully describes the problem, “These cables are very old … These cables are now at the end of their life as the bronze tapes [that act to retain the gas insulation] are corroded and failing.” Regarding the possibility of failure, the AMP is candid “….have had some gas leaks … Gas leaks are difficult to locate and expense to repair … requires the cable to be out of service for several days for repairs to be made”. In relation to another type of cable, PILC cable, the ever helpful AMP notes, “We have had a number of failures of the Kaikorai Valley cables” [due to the oil impregnated cables leaking, then drying out and failing].

If readers are in any doubt as to how much of a knife edge their power network is being run on, Page 62 (Asset Risks 4.5.3) will spill the Bells all over the sofa : “Perhaps the most significant risk of a catastrophic asset failure relates to our remaining 33kV gas filled cables.”

To conclude, readers, Mr Crombie is simply creating yet more mad hatter conditions at Delta/Aurora with the desperate and inaccurate statement, that tens of millions of unplanned expenditure (the actual cost will be the subject of the next post, out of time and tea tonight !) could be accommodated by simple funding re-arrangement. (Deck chairs on the Titanic, anyone ?). There are more distortions at Delta/Aurora than in a fairground hall of mirrors.

[ends]

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Image: pinterest.com – Danny LuVisi | Grand Theft Otto series, Homer

17 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, DCC, DCHL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Events, Finance, Geography, Health, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, OAG, Ombudsman, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Resource management, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 29, 2016 · 3:26 pm

Mr Crombie, not quite the spent force

graham-crombie-accountant-teara-govt-nz-source-odt-detail

Graham Crombie: Review starts Monday, preliminary findings not public by then as Mayor Dave Cull hoped….

### ODT Online Sat, 29 Oct 2016
Crombie: heads could roll
By Vaughan Elder
Jobs could be on the line at Delta and Aurora after claims lives are at risk because of the two companies’ failure to replace dangerous power poles.
Dunedin City Holdings Ltd (DCHL) chairman Graham Crombie yesterday said there could be “consequences” for the board and management of the two council-owned companies if an independent review found their response to the power pole situation in Dunedin and Central Otago had been lacking. Mr Crombie was working through the final stages of appointing an independent party to review the claims yesterday, but was not ready to announce who that party would be because nothing had been signed.
Read more

—

OK. So Mr Crombie’s comments in the ODT today (joy oh joy for readers!) do help to force chief executive Grady Cameron and the Aurora/Delta Directors into an unholy corner for their multiple sins.

Understandably, they have turned media shy, no doubt while they consult their lawyers – Every Man for Himself now applies. Will they shop their fellow henchmen.

Watch and wait.

However, stupidly, Mr Crombie admits he was not shocked about the extent of the problem “because everybody knew that”….

WOW, Graham Crombie, chair of DCHL, knew there was a problem.

How soon did he know ?
But hey. Aurora’s asset management plan (AMP) is not a FIX. Mr Crombie is a little confused.

Best he trots out the reports to DCHL from Aurora/Delta which describe – ie quantify and qualify – the extent of the problem, received on his watch (!).
How long have DCHL/Mr Crombie known about VERY SIGNIFICANT non compliance with statutory Health and Safety requirements, and SCALE of risk and endangerment to company staff and the public.

How can any of this be A SURPRISE.
To a professional chairman-director of a council holding company.

Well, in surprising fashion, Mr Crombie states his advice ‘from Aurora and Delta had been the network was safe and he did not believe this was contradicted by Aurora’s asset management plan acknowledging thousands of compromised poles needed replacing’.

Further, ‘He thought the financial effects of replacing thousands of poles could be managed by changes to the timing of Aurora’s planned capital programme.’ Oh dear.

An EXTRAORDINARY statement, Mr Crombie.
As chairman of Dunedin City Holdings Ltd (DCHL), you are responsible to Dunedin City Council (the Shareholder) for KNOWING AND ENSURING that all Council-controlled organisations (CCOs) are compliant —not, that they are LIABILITIES for every Ratepayer and Resident in the district, who it appears are repeatedly picking up the tab for true lack of governance and oversight by the vainglorious Dunedin Mayor and Councillors.

‘Gusty’ Mr Crombie, proverbially thus far, came down in the last rain shower. But he may yet be of public assistance to have the company chief executive and bunch of defunct directors SACKED.

****

[Black White] on the nearly 3000 dangerous poles now scattered across the network, John Walsh says: “That’s not evidence. That’s hearsay.”

Delta worker Graeme Jeffrey, in an email to Mayor Dave Cull and councillors, said the companies had “closed their eyes in the pursuit of maximising profit”.

### ODT Online Sat, 29 Oct 2016
Dunedin Insight: Warned, in black and white
History of headaches for Delta
By Chris Morris
The warning was there in black and white. It came in an Otago Daily Times article, published in 1998, blowing the whistle on maintenance cuts across Dunedin and Central Otago’s electricity network. In it, former union delegate Ian Berry cautioned against the “never ending pursuit” of profit by Aurora’s predecessor, Dunedin Electricity Ltd. Unless the practice changed, the consequences for the network would be dire, he warned. […] But, far from rejecting the allegations, then-DEL chief executive John Walsh — later the man in charge of Delta — defended the cuts. […] Fast forward 19 years to the present, and former Delta worker Richard Healey has resigned to blow the whistle again — this time on the dangerous state of 2910 power poles across the network.
Read more

Key figures in Delta and Aurora’s history declined to comment this week, including former chairman Ray Polson, current chief executive Grady Cameron, and long-serving board member Stuart McLauchlan. The ODT asked repeatedly for an interview with Mr Cameron, but he pulled out on Thursday night, saying he had “nothing to add” beyond emailed responses.

rotten-power-pole-falls-and-cuts-power-dunedin-19-2-13-photo-by-tyler-christmas-via-odtRotten power pole falls and cuts power, Dunedin ODT
Photo: Tyler Christmas 19 Feb 2013

****

“The story really is how a culture can shift from ‘we are doing this to provide a safe service to the community’ to ‘Jesus, if I just keep my head down’.” –Richard Healey

### ODT Online Sat, 29 Oct 2016
Informant, Delta poles apart
By Vaughan Elder
Giving up a 35-year career and a healthy pay cheque to blow the whistle was not easy for Dunedin man Richard Healey. But one tragic day loomed large in his decision. In lifting the lid on the serious danger from Aurora Energy’s “neglected and decaying” network, Mr Healey keeps going back to colleague Roger Steel’s death on December 9, 2010. Mr Steel was working on his own at  Millers Flat on a power pole when it toppled over. The fall of more than 20m left him with injuries a coroner said were “immediately and inevitably lethal”. […] Mr Steel’s death was followed in 2014 by an incident in which Vincent Moore suffered left leg fractures and a fractured lumbar vertebra falling from a pole while completing a service connection in Cardrona. […] Once again Delta pleaded guilty and was fined for health and safety breaches and once again Mr Healey said not enough changed at the company.
Read more

****

### ODT Online Sat, 29 Oct 2016
Hoping husband did not die in vain
By Lynda van Kempen
Karyn Steel fears safety standards have not improved in almost six years since an untagged, dangerous power pole caused the death of her husband. Delta was fined $75,000 for failing to take all steps to ensure the safety of its employees when lineman Roger Steel (63) died after the concrete power pole he was working on near Millers Flat toppled over, in early December, 2010.
….Following the inquest finding, Delta chief executive Grady Cameron said the company had upgraded and enhanced its work practices “to make sure we never have another workmate in this position again”.
….[Mrs Steel’s] husband had spent 43 years as a maintenance worker on electricity lines and loved his job but talked to her about his concerns over a “lowering of safety standards” at his workplace. The comments by whistleblower Richard Healey echoed those concerns and she admired his bravery in speaking out.
Read more

****

### ODT Online Sat, 29 Oct 2016
Regions: Central Otago
Wait to hear pole advice
By Tracey Roxburgh
Delta has responded to an urgent request from the Queenstown Lakes District Council seeking assurance that residents and visitors in the tourist town will be safe in the wake of allegations the company had neglected to replace dangerous poles across the district. What Delta has advised the council, however, will not be made public until next week, after the council has had a chance to consider it. Maps showing dangerous poles in Central Otago and Queenstown-Lakes towns were leaked to the Otago Daily Times this week.
Read more

****

What should you do if there is a dangerous power pole near you?
Call Aurora Energy and ask for details about the condition of the pole/s and ask about its replacement plans.
Look out for movement over time, swaying in the wind, cracking, and the tension on the lines to your house increasing to the point where the barge board is damaged.
Contact Aurora immediately if you notice any of the above happening.
Consider not parking your car next to a damaged pole. 

█ Aurora Energy Ltd http://www.auroraenergy.co.nz/
█ Delta Utility Services Ltd http://www.thinkdelta.co.nz/

Alternatively, contact Delta on 0800 433 582

● ODT: Detailed map of dangerous poles at Dunedin
● ODT: Dangerous power poles – Mosgiel
● ODT: Dangerous power poles – Corstorphine and part of South Dunedin
● ODT: Dangerous power poles – North Dunedin and Leith Valley
● ODT: Detailed map of dangerous poles – Central Otago and Queenstown

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Images: teara.govt.nz [source: ODT] – graham crombie, accountant | irational.org – blue white umbrella skeleton, tweaked by whatifdunedin

1 Comment

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, DCC, DCHL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Events, Finance, Geography, Health, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, OAG, Ombudsman, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Resource management, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 28, 2016 · 8:38 pm

Heads of Delta/ Aurora/ DCHL/ DCC out to lunch

Link received.
Fri, 28 Oct 2016 at 1:14 p.m.

censored-free-speech-sprottmoney-com

### zerohedge.com Oct 27, 2016 4:01 PM
Source: sprottmoney.com (blog)
The Establishment Has Rigged the System: It’s Time to Shake Things Up
By Nathan McDonald 
Is the entire system rigged? Can we trust any of it? Yes and no. Large parts of the current “modern” day system we find ourselves living in is undoubtedly rigged against the little man. This is by design – make no doubt about it – but you should not let it rule your life. Because as history has proven time and time again, the true power lies in the people – we just don’t typically know it. The establishment is once again learning this harsh lesson. People are “waking” up at a pace that I have NEVER before seen in my life. […] The MSM has proven itself to be a powerful weapon, but its control is slipping. The alternative media are rising and rising fast. We are becoming the main source of most people’s information, proving once again my point that the power rests in the masses, not the elites.
Read more

****

social-media-without-electricity-by-leunig-cathtatecards-com

****

Tonight at Channel 39 News, ODT deputy editor Craig Page tells us what’s in Saturday’s newspaper:

● More on the continuing investigation into the “Delta/Aurora saga”…. ‘neglect of repairs’ means “3000 dangerous poles in Dunedin” need to be replaced within 12 months.

[See Richard Healey’s latest comments on pole numbers at What if? Dunedin]

● DCHL chairman Graham Crombie offers “an explanation of sorts” and says there could be “consequences for Delta staff” down the track.

● Whistleblower Richard Healey “who broke the story at ODT”.

[TV3 first broke the news with Richard Healey at The Story (Newshub)]

● Chris Morris looks back at the history of Delta.

Mr Page says to expect “a lot more headlines out of it in the weeks to come”.

—

Related Posts and Comments:
27.10.16 Bev Butler says ‘Come in, Grady’ #LGOIMA #Delta
27.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 3 : Rotten Poles and Greedy Algorithms
25.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail 2 : Plaudits to Saunders & Elder : Delta…
22.10.16 DCC struggles with Governance…. Delta/Aurora/DCHL…
21.10.16 Dunedin City Council must hang the companies out to dry
20.10.16 Delta #EpicPowerFail : Delta fulfils Adam Smith’s 1776 Prophecy
19.10.16 Grady Cameron and Graham Crombie : Eyes tightly shut #FAIL
13.10.16 COMPLETE Dis-satisfaction with DCC, DCHL, DVML, DVL, Delta….
9.6.16 Aurora Energy Ltd warned by regulator

█ For more, enter the terms *delta*, *aurora*, *epic fraud* or *dchl* in the search box at right.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: sprottmoney.com – censored | cathtatecards.com – social mendia without electricity by Leunig

12 Comments

Filed under Aurora Energy, Business, DCC, DCHL, Delta, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, DVL, DVML, Economics, Events, Finance, Geography, Health, Hot air, Infrastructure, Media, Name, New Zealand, OAG, Ombudsman, ORFU, People, Perversion, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Property, Public interest, Resource management, Travesty, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 24, 2016 · 7:15 pm

Hong Sheng Chiong : Design Insights to preventable blindness —Smartphone retinal imaging

oDocs - slide3 [Oct 2015 idealog.co.nz]oDocs - smartphone_retinal_camera [Oct 2015 idealog.co.nz]oDocs - TEDx 22 May 2015 [idealog.co.nz]

Sun, 24 Apr 2016
ODT: App a real eye opener
An award-winning Dunedin junior doctor has produced a world-first smartphone app to help diagnose people who may have sight-threatening illnesses. Dr Hong Sheng Chiong’s medical company oDocs Eye Care has created an app-kit that performs a similar function to $50,000 worth of eye-examination equipment. Already, 200 units have been sold around the world and the open-source product downloaded by more than 2000 people in countries including the United States, Indonesia, Mexico, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Nigeria and Britain.

—

oDocs Eye Care will save the sight of millions by making affordable and accessible ophthalmic equipment.

“We care deeply about preventing blindness. We have committed to using half of our net profit toward saving sight in the regions where it is needed most. Its time to revolutionize eye health by building accurate equipment that is accessible and affordable. Visual impairment and blindness is a global problem, with 285 million people suffering with this disability around the world, 80% of these cases were preventable or treatable. It is unfortunate that a 90% of those cases are found in developing areas. Established in 2014 by Dr. Hong Sheng Chiong and Dr. Benjamin O’Keeffe, oDocs Eye Care (formerly OphthalmicDocs) is an innovative company in the field of portable eye care. With thousands of users, our social approach has inspired many others to join the initiative. You can contact us at info @odocs-tech.com or come have a coffee with us here at GridAKL, 101 Pakenham St West, Auckland, NZ.”

Website: http://www.odocs-tech.com/
About + Team: http://www.odocs-tech.com/about/
Facebook: ophthalmicdocs

oDocs - website image [odocs-tech.com]

—

[last year]

“We believe everyone deserves access to quality eye care. It’s supposed to be cheap, to help people in developing nations. So why would you put a label on it or mark up the price by 300-400%? Those things really make me sick.”
–Dr Hong Sheng Chiong

oDocs - Hong [globalwomensforumdubai.com] 1### idealog.co.nz 22 Oct 2015
One in the eye for blindness: the free app that thinks it’s an eye doctor
By Hannah Bartlett
A Kiwi eye specialist has invented a simple tool that turns a smartphone into a diagnostic tool – and now it has won the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Innovators Awards. In early May, ophthalmologist Dr Hong Sheng Chiong released a cunning 3D printable gadget that turns a smartphone into a retinal camera for eye examinations. Twenty four hours later, he woke to 150 emails. Another three days, and there had been more than a thousand downloads of his adapter, the OphthalmicDocs Fundus. It hadn’t cost anyone (except him) a penny.
And that’s just how Hong likes it.
By day, Hong runs the eye clinic at Gisborne Hospital. But in his spare time, he is working towards a wider goal: giving doctors in the third world the tools to detect – and therefore treat – preventable blindness.
The OphthalmicDocs Fundus (OphthalmicDocs is the name of Hong’s company; fundus is a scientific name for the retina) is a 3D printable gadget; basically a small arm which holds a condensing lens at one end and attaches to the camera part of a smartphone at the other. It turns a mobile phone into a retinal camera, which can look into the back of the eye, the most difficult area to view. Combined with the OphthalmicDocs Eye App, free eye-testing software containing tests and imaging, the camera puts a portable eye clinic in the hands of a doctor.
Hong says even eye charts on the wall of a clinic can cost thousands of dollars, so he’s converted all the basic vision tests into a smartphone-friendly app format.
Hong believes he has built the first, free, open-source eye equipment in the world. And that’s just how he likes it too.
Read more

—

TEDx Talks Published on May 22, 2015
Fighting blindness with $20 and a smart phone | Hong Sheng Chiong | TEDxAuckland
How Hong has managed to fight blindness with 20$ and a smart phone and in the process is changing how we think and create medical equipment.
Dr Hong Sheng Chiong is currently an eye doctor in Gisborne hospital. He completed his clinical training in Ireland before he crossed over to New Zealand where he initially worked as a registrar in neurosurgery and general surgery before he stepped into the world of eye. His main interests are eye regenerative medicine, bioengineering and telemedicine. His exposure to third world medicine in Kenya, Nepal and Malaysia have given him the insight to the burden of preventable blindness. He believes the problem lies in the access to quality eye care. In 2014, he founded OphthalmicDocs, an R&D company that focuses on the development of ultra mobile and economical eye tests and diagnostics devices. He has invented several eye imaging adapters that can be used in conjunction with a mobile application to diagnose and monitor eye diseases. Fighting preventable blindness is his career’s primary mission.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organised by a local community.
Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images:
idealog.co.nz – slide 3 | smartphone retinal camera | TEDx 22 May 2015
odocs-tech.com – website image
globalwomensforumdubai.com – Hong Sheng Chiong

1 Comment

Filed under Business, Coolness, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, Economics, Geography, Innovation, Inspiration, Leading edge, Media, Name, New Zealand, People, Project management, Public interest

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | March 30, 2016 · 4:58 pm

RNZ in Absolutely Great Form [broadsheet carks it, who? where?]

SAMPLE

### RNZ National about 1 hour ago
Toby & Toby on …. The newspaper apocalypse and Sonny Bill Williams’ incredible new look
OPINION: Toby Manhire & Toby Morris

RNZ 30.3.16 Disappearing-newspaper - Toby Manhire and Toby Morris

Pardon?
“Newspaper apocalypse” is hyperbolic tabloidese, granted, but there’s a grain of truth there. In the UK, the final Independent newspaper was printed a few days ago, and the title now exists online only, with a much smaller, and less well paid, reporting staff. Hundreds of newspapers around the world have similarly folded, and many more are staring down the barrel, all since the Great Change.

The Great Change? Is this the bit about Sonny Bill Williams’ incredible new look?
No. That was shameless and misleading clickbait. Sorry.
Read more

█ A CIRCUMSPECT(ish) weekly column published every Wednesday, by graphic artist Toby Morris and journalist Toby Manhire. CLEVER RNZ, WOOP !!!

—

Related Post and Comments:
20.3.16 RNZ: ‘Is the ODT going OTT?’ #paywall

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Leave a comment

Filed under Business, Coolness, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, Economics, Fun, Geography, Heritage, Hot air, Innovation, Inspiration, Leading edge, Media, Name, New Zealand, People, Pet projects, Politics, Project management, Site

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | March 24, 2016 · 4:38 pm

TV3 The Nation —Interview: Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier

TV3 The Nation. Interview Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier 19.3.16

Interview: Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier
Saturday 19 Mar 2016 10:56 a.m.
The new Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier speaks to Lisa Owen about his plans to overhaul the office and how he expects the Government to deal with public information.
█ View the TV3 Video (11:25)

Twitter: The Nation @TheNationTV3
Website: http://www.newshub.co.nz/TVShows/TheNation

Who is the Ombudsman?
There are currently two: Judge Peter Boshier and Professor Ron Paterson.
Judge Boshier began his term as Chief Ombudsman on 10 December 2015.
Ron Paterson was appointed an Ombudsman on 4 June 2013.
http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/about-us/who-is-the-ombudsman

Ombudsman —Fairness for all
http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/

Wikipedia: Office of the Ombudsman (New Zealand)

—

█ 22.1.16 Stuff: New chief ombudsman promises to be a fearless operator
New chief ombudsman Judge Peter Boshier plans to be a fearless operator, with every intention of using his title and its “spectre” to draw attention to unacceptable practices. “I’m not going to resile from saying things publicly in a considered, measured way when I think that’s justified. That’s what I did as the principal court judge and that’s what I’ll bring to this job,” he said.

█ 16.1.16 RNZ: New Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier (with Kathryn Ryan)
Former Principal Family Court Judge Peter Boshier was one of our highest profile judges during his eight years in that role, and intends to bring the same openness to his new role as Chief Ombudsman.
Audio | Downloads: Ogg MP3 (24’39”)

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: TV3 The Nation – screenshot by whatifdunedin

Leave a comment

Filed under Democracy, Media, Name, New Zealand, Ombudsman, People

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | March 20, 2016 · 7:57 pm

RNZ: ‘Is the ODT going OTT?’ #paywall

ODT 15.3.16 'ODT Online relaunching with paywall' p3 (1)Mediawatch: ‘The ODT not exactly over-selling the “exciting relaunch” of its website in last Tuesday’s paper.’ –ODT 15.3.16 (bottom, page 3)

### radionz.co.nz Sun, 20 Mar 2016 at 2:40 pm
RNZ National – Mediawatch
Will NZ’s biggest paywall plan yet pay off?
By Colin Peacock
New Zealand’s biggest locally-owned news publisher is set to make readers pay for its online news. Mediawatch asks the editor of the Otago Daily Times if it will pay off, and what the paying punters will get in return.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (11′34″)

—

[excerpts from Mediawatch article]

The two big news publishers in this country – Fairfax Media and NZME – still give away their best stuff for free online.

….this week the biggest publisher outside of the two main companies announced time will soon be up for its free-loading readers. Dunedin-based Allied Press told The NBR (ironically in an article behind the NBR’s paywall) Otago Daily Times had been “giving away our content free for long enough.” Fighting talk. The publication’s paywall plan is a bold move by a paper which does not often chop or change. Its design is conservative and it carries some distinctly old-fashioned local content. […] From next month, a digital ODT subscription will cost $27 a month – the same as a print subscription. Subscribers of the paper will get online access for nothing. […] But readers leaving comments on the ODT site weren’t supportive. One said he thought it was a joke: “I’m guessing the paywall starts on the 1st of April?”
….Writing for The Spinoff website, [former NZ Herald editor-in-chief] Tim Murphy said because subscribers to the paper also had digital access, a big chunk of the total audience might stick loyally with the website too. But Mr Murphy added: “It will need to have content that you can’t get anywhere else, in a voice and character and feel that you want to support because it is ‘your ODT’.”
Full Article

Fishnchip paper [fresh.co.nz]!!! ……yesterday

—

█ http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch
Mediawatch looks critically at the New Zealand media – television, radio, newspapers and magazines as well as the ‘new’ electronic media. It also examines the performance of the agencies, corporations and institutions that regulate them. It looks into the impact the media has on the nation, highlighting good practice as well as bad along the way – and it also enquires into overseas trends and technological developments which New Zealanders need to know about. It aims to enlighten everyone with an interest in the media about how it all works, how quickly things are changing – and how certain significant stories and issues are being covered. It’s also intended to be essential listening for those who work in the industry itself – as well as those who simply enjoy well-produced and lively radio.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: fresh.co.nz + alliedpress.co.nz – tweaked by whatifdunedin

58 Comments

Filed under Business, Design, Dunedin, Economics, Geography, Heritage, Media, Name, New Zealand, People, Pet projects, Politics, Project management

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | November 3, 2015 · 3:25 pm

Dunedin: University students into excess alcohol, party drugs, sexual abuse, vandalism #CRIME

SEND IN YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS ???

—

Received from Jeff Dickie
Tue, 3 Nov 2015 at 2:16 p.m.

█ Subject: Singapore letter declined by ODT

On Sunday, 1 November 2015 1:22 PM, Jeff Dickie wrote:

Your newspaper’s images of couch burning and civil disorder become quite focused when viewed from a distance. It is absolutely clear none of the parties that showed a flurry of interest earlier in the year, when poor behaviour was exposed on national media, have any wish to solve it. There followed a cynical exercise in public relations damage control rather than any real effort to solve the problem behaviour of a very small minority. It begs the question why? The university clearly tacitly supports the party image to get bums on seats. The DCC doesn’t know what to do. As a regular visitor to Singapore where alcohol is available 24/7, I have never once seen any such behaviour. The solution is obvious.

JEFF DICKIE
ORCHARD ROAD
SINGAPORE

Woodhaugh
Dunedin

—

All Black win – any excuse
Video stills via Stuff.co.nz (published 1.11.15)

Student fire at Castle Street 31.10.15 Student fire at Castle Street 31.10.15 █ Stuff: Dunedin students celebrate Rugby World Cup win by torching couches

—

Related Post and Comments:
● 1.11.15 University of Otago student mayhem continues, another LOSS for Harls
7.10.15 University blues, connected ?
18.8.15 Dunedin authorities blame SUNSHINE #tui
● 26.6.15 University of Otago flyover #partyville
30.5.15 ‘Captive market for addiction maybe or scapegoats?’ asks Otago student
26.5.15 Student involvement in Dunedin drinking culture
17.5.15 Social media messages after Sunday TVNZ (10 May)
12.5.15 View Street, seen from Moray Place
11.5.15 Don’t for Chrissakes play down effects of liquor barons #DUD
11.5.15 Aftermath of Sunday TVNZ on ‘Party Central’
● 8.5.15 Sunday TVNZ #Dunedin —10 May TV1 at 7:00 pm
2.4.15 University rolls down, Harlene not the only problem….
28.3.15 University of Otago landscaping
22.3.15 University of Otago: More national and global publicity #HydeStreet
18.2.15 University of Otago: Toga Party 2015 #video
16.2.15 University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image
● 11.11.14 Dunedin’s draft local alcohol policy (Lap) —submissions, real story….
8.5.14 Student Proof Carpet – New Zealand #video
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
9.1.14 Facadism: … University of Otago warps Castle Street
19.8.13 Cull on senility (firing up graduates)
24.7.13 University: Leith flood protection scheme and landscaping
31.5.13 University of Otago development plans
25.3.13 UoO: NEGATIVE PRESS: Weekly disorder in Dunedin campus area
20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
17.2.12 Salvation Army: The Growing Divide
17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
9.11.11 DCC has PR problem

LadyGagaVEVO Published on Sep 17, 2015
Lady Gaga – Til It Happens To You
A portion of proceeds from the sale of the song will be donated to organizations helping survivors of sexual assault.
“Til It Happens To You” written by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga; performed by Lady Gaga, from the film THE HUNTING GROUND.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

85 Comments

Filed under Business, DCC, Democracy, Design, Dunedin, Economics, Events, Media, Name, New Zealand, People, Police, Politics, Project management, Property, Site, Sport, Tourism, Town planning, University of Otago, Urban design, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | November 1, 2015 · 9:42 pm

University of Otago student mayhem continues, another LOSS for Harls

Star reporter David Beck notes feral practices and bully-tactics.

### ODT Online Sun, 1 Nov 2015
Students undergo hazing rituals for flats
By David Beck – The Star
Dunedin tertiary students who have secured flats in popular areas such as Castle St and Hyde St are being put through hazing rituals by tenants leaving the flats. Flat initiations are particularly common for students securing a flat for their second year of study and generally involve excessive amounts of alcohol.
Read more

█ Students needing support and advice in this area can contact Student Health, Campus Watch and staff at the university colleges.

****

### ODT Online Sun, 1 Nov 2015
Red cards a booze-fuelled tradition
By David Beck – The Star
The scarfie tradition of red cards is all about doing something new and having a good time, a university graduate says. Each person in a flat is allowed to pull one red card during the year. On the day they decide to use it, the rest of the flat has to participate in whatever alcohol-fuelled activity the holder has decided on.
Read more

****

### ODT Online Sun, 1 Nov 2015
Police out in numbers in student area
Police have turned out in numbers in the student area of Dunedin this morning after a disruptive night combining Halloween and Rugby World Cup final celebrations.
Read more

—

The Best Doll wallpaper for Samsung smartphone [samsunghdwallpaper.com]One practice David Beck has missed (see various
student-authored social media reports) is sexual predation visited on young women by feral young men, read Students —recently brought to the attention of What if? Dunedin.

(Frankly, practically) None of this is helped by ultra short skirts and visible G-strings worn by ‘accessible’ young women, to Dunedin night venues and popup parties. YES that is a non-PC statement but hey.

It’s hard to report sexual assault if you’ve been surrounded (while you’re drunk or drugged, or not) on the dance floor by young men exercising pack instinct and intent. The case of whose finger was it anyway. YES, this in Your Swill Town.

The University, Police and Council authorities wouldn’t have a clue about what/who/how to manage the manifold risks posed to vulnerable young people studying at Dunedin —outstanding ignorance, blindness and naïveté pertain within the Establishment, whose business (MARKETING) it has been to play down the more unsavoury aspects of Student party life here.

The University of Otago and NZ Police FAIL to monitor, DO NOT investigate, and DO NOT offer strong guidance on Student use of social media at Dunedin. These ‘encounters’ make the recent Roast Busters case at Auckland seem trivial if not ephemeral. The ‘Stewards of Dunedin’ reside in the Dark Ages, a place not enlightened by smartphone use for good or bad. There is BAD. Despite the law change based on the outcome of the Roast Busters investigation, sadistic criminal behaviours at Dunedin go unpoliced. And unreported to Police.

Keep partying why not. Sell more drinks, more party drugs?
No-one wants to talk about it. Jolly the young sweet things along.

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: samsunghdwallpaper.com – The Best Doll wallpaper for Samsung smartphone

30 Comments

Filed under Business, DCC, Dunedin, Economics, Enterprise Dunedin, Events, Media, New Zealand, People, Police, Politics, University of Otago, What stadium

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 7, 2015 · 1:18 pm

University blues, connected ?

Updated Post
Wed, 7 Oct 2015 at 11.17 p.m.

—

“If you’re in Dunedin, I wouldn’t recommend coming to Otago University on Wednesday” —the online threat now deleted from bulletin board 4chan.

### ODT Online Wed, 7 Oct 2015
Warning to stay alert after uni threat
By Carla Green
Dunedin police are continuing their investigation into an online shooting threat made against the University of Otago. […] Acting Area Commander Inspector Mel Aitken said police would maintain a visible presence in the university area, and a number of contingencies would remain in place. People on the university grounds should remain vigilant and alert, she said, and any suspicious activity should be reported.
Read more

OUSA would be posting the messages on its Facebook page, and the university would also be communicating via social media and the student email network.

—

[this morning]
### ODT Online Wed, 7 Oct 2015
Students on edge after Uni shooting threat
By Carla Green
Several University of Otago eateries will not open today and the central library computer lab is largely empty as the campus responds to a shooting threat made online. Several students spoke of being on edge on campus this morning after the threat was posted by an anonymous social media user on bulletin board 4chan just before midnight on Monday.
Read more

—

[yesterday]
### ODT Online Tue, 6 Oct 2015
Shooting threat at Otago University
By Timothy Brown
Specialist police are investigating an online threat to carry out a shooting at University of Otago in Dunedin tomorrow and have moved to reassure the public, saying “appropriate measures” are being taken. Acting Otago coastal area commander Inspector Mel Aitken confirmed late this afternoon that staff from the High Tech Crime Group in Wellington are investigating the anonymous threat.
Read more

****

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 13:08, October 7 2015
Wellington’s Victoria University is being evacuated over bomb scare
By Talia Shadwell
Part of Victoria University in Wellington are being evacuated after a note was found claiming three bombs would explode on campus by lunchtime. Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Guilford said a staff member had found the note about 9.30am by the lifts in the Murphy building on the Kelburn campus. It stated that three bombs were hidden somewhere on campus and would go off by midday. The note was short and offered no explanation or motive for the bombing, he said.
Read more

****

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 16:51, October 7 2015
Massey University evacuated after threatening note
By Kelsey Wilkie
Massey University has become the third university to receive a threatening message. The campus has evacuated its registry building in Palmerston North after it received a threatening note aimed at staff on Wednesday afternoon. “We have received a note threatening the staff in our Contact Centre on our Manawatu campus and have evacuated everyone from our Registry Building as a precaution,” Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey said. “We are aware there have been threats made against Otago University and Victoria University over the past two days. So far those threats have come to nothing but, at this stage, keeping our students safe is our key priority,” Maharey said.
Read more

—

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

14 Comments

Filed under Democracy, Events, Media, New Zealand, People, Police, Property, Site, University of Otago

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,