A sad, sad day for NZ's development sector

I have sadly just been informed that an announcement will be made tomorrow (1 May) regarding the future of NZ's Agency for International Development (NZAID) - that it will be integrated back into the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).

The implications of this move are huge for NZ's development sector. NZAID is renowned for being a world leader in the delivery of aid. As a semi-autonomous department that has effectively operated outside the purview of government and thus the rule of politicians, NZAID has proved an exemplary model that has received particular attention and praise from, amongst other organisations, the OECD.

NZAID's focus has been on poverty alleviation, however, with its integration back into MFAT the focus will shift to 'economic development' and instead of being run by development professionals, NZ's aid will be delivered by politicians and diplomats. Changing the focus of NZ's overseas development assistance from poverty alleviation to economic development will result in what is called 'boomerang aid' - the money that should be spent on helping developing countries and their people will inevitably return to NZ as NZ-based companies are contracted to do, generally, infrastructural development in developing countries.

This approach to development harks back to out-dated modernisation and neo-liberal theories of development and will mean a shift away from approaches that champion sustainable development, community empowerment and partnership.

May day will be a very sad day indeed for NZ's development community as well as the multitude of countries, organisations and people that NZAID has worked with. Yet again, the National-led government has proved that it is completely out of touch with the world's needs. John Key's big business approach to leadership is making sure that NZ will take a long, long time to recover from his utter arrogance and pig-headed leadership.

Indoor community sports centre may force flyover

While I certainly don't want to give up on fighting to stop the flyover being built at the Basin Reserve, a friend recently pointed out that there is another issue that I had not yet considered. And, it is one that could quite likely lead to construction of both the flyover and duplication of the Mt Victoria Tunnel.

The recently approved multi-court indoor community sports centre at Cobham Park in Kilbirnie (see map here) will reportedly have 317 car parks and is predicted to result in an "... amount of additional traffic using Mount Victoria Tunnel [that] equates to four years of traffic growth in ‘one big hit’." (see Captial Times article here)

It is likely that this projected increase in use of the Mt Victoria Tunnel will be used by the Wellington City Council as further proof of the need to construct the flyover at the Basin Reserve and duplicate the Mt Victoria Tunnel. The ridiculous point about this is that it is these very issues - transport and access - that Councillor Andy Foster was highlighting when he made his case at the Environment Court (he was calling for the siting of the indoor community sports centre to be in the CBD, near the public transport hub at the train station).

Unfortunately, lack of forethought and acceptance of the dual issues of climate change and peak oil by Wellington's governing bodies may well see yet more roads, more greenhouse gas emissions and more poor urban planning.

While it may take some time to come to fruition, sea level rise may have the last laugh as it returns the Miramar Peninsula to an island, and, in the process flooding the site of the proposed indoor community sports centre!

Some points for your submission on the flyover

With the due date for submissions on the Proposed Regional Land Transport Programme (RLTP) looming - they are due on Friday 24th April at 5pm - I thought it a good time to highlight some points that you may like to put in your submission relating specifically to SH1 at the Basin Reserve. It is this part of the RLTP - SH1 at the Basin Reserve - that may result in construction of a flyover at the Basin Reserve.

1) The Local Government Act, 2002 was designed to encourage community participation in local governance and, as such, a key aspect of local authorities' role is to listen to their communities' input before making a decision. This makes it all the more curious that both the Wellington City Council and the Greater Wellington Regional Council have chosen to ignore previous consultation relating to the flyover in which a resounding 79% of submissions on the Ngauranga to Wellington Airport Plan were OPPOSED to a flyover being built at the Basin Reserve.

2) Building a flyover at the Basin Reserve will simply shift congestion from one side of the Basin Reserve to the other placing increased pressure on the Mount Victoria tunnel which will inevitably lead to duplication of said tunnel at a cost of over $170 million. The flyover at the Basin Reserve must therefore be priced with this in mind - it thus becomes a project worth in the vicinity of $220 million!

3) The Proposed Regional Land Transport Programme (pg. 39) purports that the planned 'grade separation' at the Basin Reserve (i.e. flyover) meets the environmental objectives of the New Zealand Transport Strategy (NZTS). These objectives include to:
- "Halve per capita greenhouse gas emissions from domestic transport by 2040;
- Reduce the kilometres traveled by single occupancy vehicles in major urban areas on weekdays by 10% per capita by 2015 compared to 2007"

It is pretty clear that building a flyover at the Basin Reserve will not achieve these objectives, but, rather, it will induce demand and thereby increase greenhouse gas emissions from the city's transport sector. The authors of the Proposed Regional Land Transport Programme are quite simply lying that the plans for SH1 at the Basin Reserve will meet the NZTS environmental objectives. I imagine that the authors assume that we will take their word for it, not having the time to go and check their facts. This is not only dishonest but manipulative and indicates that they may well have already made their decision.

However, we must not lose hope! We must make submissions to hold them to account and make it clear that we know what they are intending to do. It is most important that we put our opinions and knowledge on paper so that we have a paper trail.

So please, make a submission, it is imperative that the authorities know that we do not want more roads in our city.

The following links may be helpful in researching your submission:
Proposed Regional Land Transport Programme;
New Zealand Transport Strategy;
Save the Basin Trust's form submission available here;
Greater Wellington Regional Council email address for sending submissions: info@gw.govt.nz

Make a submission on the flyover at the Basin Reserve

Co-founder of Save the Basin Trust, Kent Duston, has published an article about the planned flyover at the Basin Reserve on the Wellington page of Scoop. It's well worth a read and can be found here.

Don't forget, submissions close on Friday 24 April at 5pm.

Even if you just write to say that you oppose a flyover at the Basin Reserve that's great. Just send an email to: info@gw.govt.nz
Make sure you clearly state that it is your submission on the Regional Land Transport Programme (RLTP). You must also include your name, address and phone number. You do not have to be a resident of Wellington to make a submission. This issue is about New Zealand's future. About climate change, peak oil...and cricket! (For those that follow the game!).

So please, take a minute to write to the Greater Wellington Regional Council to voice your opinion of the proposed flyover at the Basin Reserve.

Alternative to the car? No, surely not.

The following two headings were in yesterday's (7 April) edition of The Dominion Post:

"Roading chaos spurs strategy rethink"

"National slips car crushing into gear"

The first related to worsening road saftey figures in Wellington while the second concerned Police Minister, Judith (Crusher) Collins' plan to crush boy racer's cars.

Unfortunately talk of shifting our transport sector away from the private motor vehicle has been conspicuous in its absence in all of this. It seems our leaders (and newspaper editors for that matter) need to consider what a 'strategy rethink' really entails.

As the often cited quote of Albert Einstein says: "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."

Flyover at the Basin Reserve

So the Dominion Post seems to have stopped publishing my letters.
I'm sure it's all a master conspiracy and the editor is in the pocket of John Key and Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast...
However, they can't censor me here! So, I've copied in below a letter I'd hoped to get in today's edition of the paper:

With the cricketing world turning its attention to Wellington's Basin Reserve this Friday, it is most important to inform them of the Regional Land Transport Committee's plans that could see a flyover built at the iconic cricket ground's northern end. The euphemism 'grade separation' is being used to limit the inevitable collatoral should the public realise what such plans would mean for the Basin Reserve: a concrete monstrosity skirting the ground and likely resulting in construction of a multi-level stand just to block out the flyover's air, noise and visual pollution.

Not only would construction of the flyover make it nigh on impossible to hear the sound of leather on willow, but it would lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions and oil-dependency as commuters are encouraged to continue using the private car as their main mode of transport in the city.

Incidentally submissions relating to the congestion issues at the Basin Reserve are currently open through the Council's Regional Land Transport Programme and I strongly encourage you to make a submission.

Basically, the 'grade separation' (read: flyover) has been placed as the number two priority on the region's land transport programme for the next 3 and 10 year periods which means that there is a high probability that it will be built, and, possibly fast-tracked, as a 'road of national significance'.

I will be writing more about this issue in the coming days. For now, you should check out savethebasin.org.nz. Submissions close on Friday 24th April at 5pm.

This is one way that you can act to help reduce our capital city's dependency on a fossil-fuelled transport system.

I love those literary references.

I love those literary references
And I know you do too
It’s true
But if I could just hold you
Then maybe all those books we never read
Wouldn’t matter
Any more
At all

And though we both think a battered paperback has
A certain beauty
Maybe it’s just old
Maybe it’s now
Just pages of typewritten conjecture
That some lecturer will quote
Over and over
Year after year
Before it becomes clear
To him
That though it indisputably had its time
That it’s time has passed
With the passing of time
And sadly
That television’s doing all the talking
That advertising’s become lucrative
That apathy’s become a pastime

And no one seems to care
Let alone mind.

Fortress New Zealand

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp confirmed yesterday that Whenuapai Air Base in Auckland will remain an operational base for the country's Air Force. $60 million over the next three years has been set aside to upgrade the facility.

I am exceptionally curious to know where this money is coming from. Especially given that Rodney Hide is hopping made over the apparent "tens of thousands of dollars" being spent on ensuring we have safe drinking water (see blog entry for 24 March), and that the $26 million hole left in the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) has been used as a pretext for Nick Smith cutting jobs at MfE, abolishing the Bioethics Council, and doing away with the Govt3 and Carbon Neutral Public Service initiatives (see blog entry for 20 March).

It seems to me that this government has given up on trying to mitigate climate change or protect the environment. It is instead taking the course of 'fortress New Zealand' so that we can fight off the environmental refugees that will be swamping our shores in decades to come.

Cell phones and Philip Roth

My friend Charles has invited me to contribute to this blog, and I'm going to try my best.
So, here's my first post:

While reading 'Exit Ghost' by Philip Roth, I came across this paragraph on cell phones, which I'd like to share here. To put in context - the main character, the writer Nathan Zuckerman, has just returned to New York in 2004 after spending ten years away from the city, living rurally and mostly reclusively:-

What suprised me most my first few days walking in the city? The most obvious thing - the cell phones. We had no reception as yet up on my mountain, and down in Athena, were they do have it, I'd rarely see people striding the streets talking uninhibitedly into their phones. I remembered a New York when the only people walking up Broadway seemingly talking to themselves were crazy. What had happened in these ten years for there suddenly to be so much to say - so much so pressing that it couldn't wait to be said? Everywhere I walked, somebody was approaching me talking on a phone. Inside the cars, the drivers where on the phone. When I took a taxi, the cabbie was on the phone. For one who frequently went without talking for days at a time, I had to wonder what that had previously held them up had collapsed in people to make incessant talking into a telephone preferable to walking about under no one's surveillance, momentarily solitary, assimilating the streets through one's animal senses and thinking the myriad thoughts that the activities of a city inspire. For me it made the streets appear comic and the people ridiculous. And yet it seemed like a real tragedy, too. To eradicate the experience of separation must inevitably have a dramatic effect. What will the consequence be? You know you can reach the other person anytime, and if you can't, you get impatient - impatient and angry like a stupid little god.