Northport want to expand. Why? To grow.
We need to grow because what we do is sell stuff to the world and for that we need ports.
Northport has been denied resource consents. Independent commissioners looked at the application, as sent to the local councils, and turned it all down. They are now off to the Environment Court.
One of the owners of Northport is Tauranga Port. They too have been in the Environment Court because they too wanted to expand, and they too were tied up by locals in a seemingly never-ending series of red tape and obfuscation.
The Tauranga case has been going on for years.
Both examples would provide jobs, and income, and tax, and growth and yet as a country currently on its knees economically, we still can't seem to find the wherewithal to give ourselves the uppercut required to get our act together.
Enter the Fast-track Approvals Bill.
Northport has applied to be one of the cases. It would go to a group of experts and then if they tick it off it heads directly to the minister, who makes the decision.
Remarkably, we have opposition from some who argue about democracy and having our say. What they mean is there are nitpickers in councils and single-issue zealots who hire lawyers to tie things up in courts.
In other words, we have the current model, it doesn’t work, it's inefficient, it's slow, it's expensive, it's anti-growth - and yet they defend it.
Just like the military academies, the health service, like the sanctions on Jobseeker, it's about trying to fix failed systems that are defended for no other reason than bloody mindedness.
When a business can't do business because of rules and barracudas the system is broken.
When a country, through rules, stymies growth you've got to wonder about the future.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
One of the owners of Northport is Tauranga Port. They too have been in the Environment Court because they too wanted to expand, and they too were tied up by locals in a seemingly never-ending series of red tape and obfuscation.
The Tauranga case has been going on for years.
Both examples would provide jobs, and income, and tax, and growth and yet as a country currently on its knees economically, we still can't seem to find the wherewithal to give ourselves the uppercut required to get our act together.
Enter the Fast-track Approvals Bill.
Northport has applied to be one of the cases. It would go to a group of experts and then if they tick it off it heads directly to the minister, who makes the decision.
Remarkably, we have opposition from some who argue about democracy and having our say. What they mean is there are nitpickers in councils and single-issue zealots who hire lawyers to tie things up in courts.
In other words, we have the current model, it doesn’t work, it's inefficient, it's slow, it's expensive, it's anti-growth - and yet they defend it.
Just like the military academies, the health service, like the sanctions on Jobseeker, it's about trying to fix failed systems that are defended for no other reason than bloody mindedness.
When a business can't do business because of rules and barracudas the system is broken.
When a country, through rules, stymies growth you've got to wonder about the future.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
2 comments:
What Hoskins is clearly reluctant to say is that both Tauranga and Northport are being sabotaged by local iwi who place the survival of "their" pipi beds over prosperity for all. This is a stunning example of how Maori have no concept of nation-building and what constitutes the the common good, and why Tikanga has no part in the planning process.
But Mike a few score or less locals, who earn good wages from the local employment, or receive generous benfits provided from the productivity of the state, gather, with much time labour and travelling, possibly a few hundred dollars worth of local seafood annually. Although the whole area is much modified the practice is defined as tradition and hence ranks above multi million dollar projects which will likely hugely raise the income of any locals inclined to work.
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