Dr Spin goes to work in the Council Newsline again this week (8 May 2020). See if you can spot the trend.
On the Motueka Library project:
On the topic of permanently chlorinating all water supplies:
Obviously, we are a council that likes to assess all information and not a Council bent on making an ill-informed decision.
Is this the same Council that I was in when we tried to get all the information to make an informed decision around whether to continue with the Waimea Irrigation Dam?
Oh the difference that a week makes. Or is it just a change of agenda? When we want to do something, we need “all the information,” when we don’t want to do something it is just a waste of money getting all the information because we already know all about it (or are we afraid of what might be revealed?).
Perhaps we have Third Term arrogance already too?
When the Government announced the waste of tens of millions of dollars buying back guns when they outlawed many semi-automatic weapons I questioned if they were going to ban 3D printers too. At that time, I was attacked by pro-Ardern Facebook trolls for a ridiculous statement. Of course, these warriors of the internet have no idea (like our Government it seems) that it has never been easier to download plans to 3D print all the parts that you need to convert rifles into assault rifles.
Recently, the Government announced that we were making people self-isolate when they entered NZ because of the COVID19 risk. At that time, I made the comparison to the Government’s over reaction to one lunatic with a gun and how they were now letting killers loose on the streets of NZ (unless they wanted to self-isolate). Once again, my comparison was questioned by the hero’s of the internet. A week or so later we are in level 4 lockdown to “save lives.”
The inability of people to follow a logical discussion, or to apply reason consistently, is the greatest frustration I have faced since delving into the murky world of politics.
The second greatest frustration would be the high level of secret squirrel activity.
Take the current COVID19 situation. As a councillor, I was forwarded an update from the Covid-19 Local Government Response Unit which I presume was a regular update that I only received one of. I received it in “IN-CONFIDENCE” and was thus unable to discuss the information which contained the figures of infection by district.
There was no need for this to be withheld from the public by the Government or local Government. It may have assisted with compliance to the lockdown at least in the more heavily affected areas.
During the Pigeon Valley fire I also found that there was a lot of over-the-top secrecy protecting information that I felt should have been publicly available -that a full evacuation of Wakefield was imminent for instance. Businesses supplying food might have had interest if no-one else.
The lack of honest communication leads to social media running wild with rumours and speculation.
Or once again, are we in a situation where information is being hidden for a reason? For instance, Councillors were never permitted to see how the Pigeon Valley Fire Mayoral Fund was distributed. Given that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the day were beneficiaries, and that they were overseeing the fund, you would have thought it prudent that there was open scrutiny over the distribution of these public funds?
As I finish this it has been announced that we are moving to COVID alert level 2 … but… we have all kinds of inconsistencies in how we will apply our gatherings. You can space out at rugby matches but are not allowed to space out at church for instance. Restaurants can only take group bookings of no more than 10 but no limit on how many groups or individuals they accommodate? Schools are open so I suppose there will only be 10 to a class? Or 10 to a bus?
Good luck “team of 5 million” you are in excellent hands.