“A bit of Counsel for the Council” Ae Marika! 12 March 2013 – MP Hone Harawira

Posted on March 12, 2013 by admin in Ae Marika

A BIT OF COUNSEL FOR THE COUNCIL

You’d think that after 100 years, and having attended the Treaty Settlement signings for Te Rarawa, Ngai Takoto and Te Aupouri, and having been directly involved in negotiations for months to establish a Statutory Board to manage Te One Roa a Tohe (90 Mile Beach) which includes the 3 iwi plus Ngati Kuri, Ngati Kahu and the Council itself – that the Far North District Council might have actually worked out that if they wanted to do anything on the beach … they just might think about asking the 5 iwi.

But no. After a casual conversation with just one person, Council staff, without even telling all their councillors and the local community board, and in breach of their own regulations, decides to shut the beach for a week so the boys from Top Gear can take a spin up the beach. Talk about dumb and ignorant. That’s the kind of pig-headed racism that has become a signature of local body politics for longer than anyone can remember.

I went to the hui on Sunday to try to clear the air and even all my mild-mannered conservative relations were … upset. Haami Piripi outlined the issues very clearly and he was followed by a host of others expressing their disappointment and anger. The Council rep spoke for a few minutes and apologised profusely for their mistakes, and by the end of the meeting it seemed like a delicate agreement had been reached, although given how pissed off a lot of people were, the Council will have their fingers and toes crossed for the next few days.

On another beach issue … Mike Sabin has been trying to get a 30-mile speed limit for the beach down Ahipara but the Council won’t play ball. I actually agree with him. There are some real idiots on the beach. Reuben and the boys have done a pretty good job of keeping most of them off the southern end. Maybe some local “persuasion” will get them to move away from Te Neke as well.

One other suggestion Mike – some time ago, Aniwaniwa asked Council for some speed signs for our kura. We waited and we asked and we waited and … in the end we got a local guy to make us signs, we put them up, got the paper to take photos of them, and a week later Council put some real ones up. Local action often gets local bodies moving.

And on another Council matter … water. Council is rightly warning everyone that because of the severe drought conditions that we’re facing, people will have to either cut back voluntarily or the Council will do it for them.

The thing is though, that we know that every year the far north is going to run dry, and we also know that every year the Council will issue these dire warnings, but there doesn’t seem to be any solution except drill for more water.

But we regularly waste billions of litres of water every year, by allowing the rain water on everyone’s homes to simply run away into our storm-water drains and out to nowhere.

Now I’ve suggested this before, but Council never bothered doing anything about it so maybe people should just start doing it themselves. Buy a water tank, hook it up to your spouting and voila – you got water and the Council can stop moaning.

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. You are welcome to use any of the comments and to ascribe them to Mr Harawira. The full range of Hone’s articles can be found on the MANA website at www.mana.net.nz.