April 20, 2010
You haven’t met WikiLeaks! WikiLeaks is a website that publishes leaked documents exposing various corporate and governmental misbehaviour, in a manner that guarantees the anonymity of the leaker or whistleblower. Here’s a video report that describes the operation. Because it operates (apparently out of Iceland) on a transnational basis, WikiLeaks has managed to evade libel [...]
April 19, 2010
Beverley Wakem, the Chief Ombudsman, recently delivered remarks to a conference of “residents groups,” mostly from the Wellington area. Her remarks provide a very complete and useful explanation of citizens’ rights as provided by key legislation like the Ombudsmen Act and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA). She covers access to information, [...]
April 18, 2010
With amalgamation looming as an issue in this year’s election debates, I can’t help already wondering who some of the contenders might be for the ultimate Grand Poobah of Hawke’s Bay job, when it becomes available. Who’s most popular today? Although the most determined advocate of amalgamation is Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule, he might be [...]
April 17, 2010
Outstanding Hilltop Location For Sale By Andrew Frame Whether you call it “Scinde Island,” or by the more common trio, from west to east, of “Hospital Hill,” “Napier Hill” and “Bluff Hill,” Napier’s hill is a focal point in an otherwise flat city. It shines like a crown in the night when you approach Napier [...]
April 16, 2010
Which body has primary responsibility for protecting our local environment here in the Bay? Arguably the Regional Council. But a variety of forces threaten to disempower that role. Death by the guillotine, or by a thousand cuts? Here’s my assessment — Sunset for Regional Council? — as just published in April’s BayBuzz Digest. Anybody see [...]
April 14, 2010
A major study of genetically-modified crops has just been released by the US National Academy of Science’s National Research Council. The report is described as “the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of genetically modified crops on American farmers.” Chief benefits cited related to diminished use of especially harmful herbicides, increased use of no-till farming [...]
April 12, 2010
On 27 February 2008 then-Health Minister David Cunliffe fired the seven freshly elected members of the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and appointed outsider Sir John Anderson as Commissioner to run the DHB. After months of political and legal jockeying, and a change of Government, new Health Minister Tony Ryall in February 2009 re-instated the [...]
- Andrew Reyngoud on DAM(N)! A half-billion dollar water storage scheme
- Margaret Donnelly on WATER. What's all the fuss about?
- Elizabeth Sisson on 'Dump Council' campaign
- Paul Bailey on Cows in Karamu Stream
- Rob Pharazyn on Cows in Karamu Stream
- John J Harrison on 5 mayors in HB ... 'Yeah right' says Tui
- Anne Parker on Let's get Council meetings online
- Stuart Nash on 5 mayors in HB ... 'Yeah right' says Tui
- Kylie Fowler on Let's get Council meetings online
- Paul Bailey on Let's get Council meetings online
- ‘Dump Council’ campaign
- Cows in Karamu Stream
- Questions for HB ‘regional study’ director
- Let’s get Council meetings online
- 5 mayors in HB … ‘Yeah right’ says Tui
- Crucial Environment Court hearing underway
- Regional Council warns on pollution standards
- Democracy in action?
- 1+1+1 = 3 hours
- Councils’ reorganization survey results
