CHLÖE SWARBRICK: MP AUCKLAND CENTRAL

CHLÖE SWARBRICK: AUCKLAND CENTRAL MP

As Peter Burling led our top-notch sailors to an historic win, an estimated 1.5 million New Zealanders tuned into the America’s Cup final on free-to-air livestream.

Thousands more crowded the Waitemata waterfront from the Viaduct along to Silo Park. Even I got an enthusiastic education on the engineering and technological prowess of superyachts from an oldschool Greenpeace activist while we were out on the Hauraki.

In a world still reeling from Covid-19, in a country well attuned to our ‘team of five million’ sacrifice and successes, there’s an especially profound sense of pride in watching our people win.

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These things don’t happen in a vacuum. Team New Zealand and their effortless, necessary trust in each other’s skill built on tens of thousands of hours in training, Council and coordination of its associated organisations, Government and the firing up of Ministries and Departments, news media and their extensive coverage, New Zealanders and our dogged support. Heck, even the almighty wind had to be on side.

‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity’, so the saying goes. You identify what you want, work towards it, get knocked down and keep getting back up again. While opportunity is closer at hand when you’ve got the money, connections and social cache, sometimes it also literally comes down to which way the wind blows.

Just like that America’s Cup win, tackling the challenges facing our communities across Auckland Central won’t happen through mythical luck.

09 302 0166 chloe.swarbrick@parliament.govt.nz

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Chlöe Swarbrick

MP for Auckland Central

Which is why it’s easily one of my greatest privileges to work with people organising to end homelessness on our streets (special shout out to Bernadette Brewer for leading the charge forward on Karangahape Road), those mobilising for meaningful climate action and the folks researching, submitting and acting to protect the Hauraki Gulf – among so many other kaupapa. On just that first point alone, across these past few months, we’ve worked to tautoko Bernadette in bringing together neighbours, service providers, local businesses, government and council representatives and officials concerned with ensuring everyone has the support they need and a warm, dry, secure bed at night, plotting a pathway to achieve exactly that.

We can, and we will, win. Remember that it was unfathomable for polls and commentators to imagine a ‘third party’ candidate could win an electorate to represent our home of Auckland Central. Remember that our plucky, tiny nation at the bottom of the world invests in and hones its sporting excellence to excel against countries twice, thrice or ten times our size. Remember that so often, change takes a little imagination, a lot of coordination and a pinch of earnest naivety to take on the world. (CHLÖE SWARBRICK)  PN

www.greens.org.nz/chloe_swarbrick

Aydin repairing the vintage radio landscape

LAST MONTH’S REPAIR CAFE - THE ORGANISERS TOLD US: “IT WAS SUCH A BUZZ!”

The feedback we got was: “really happy to have it fixed”, “great vibe, very friendly”, “lovely electrical expert helped me”, “careful repair”, “excellent people”, “very helpful, friendly advice”.

In terms of electrical appliances, people came in with radios, toasters, blenders, a lamp, a hair dryer, a landline phone and so on, but there were some really interesting ones. There was a 1930s valve radio. Its owner had no idea where to go to have it fixed and who would have the talent to solve its problems but our electrician did! He went away delighted and only too happy to put a goodly sum in the koha jar. The young woman who had a vintage portable vinyl record player had a similar story and she went away with a delighted smile on her face too.

Then there were the clothing repairs. One young man had a favourite jacket that he really couldn’t wear any more because it was torn in several places. Our clever seamstress invisibly mended it and was he ecstatic! His girlfriend got the hole in her jumper mended by the other lady at the same time. “So easy and quick,” someone commented.

Another person had the sole on his expensive Allbirds sneakers reglued by our DIY guy. Our other DIY guy, together with our electronics woman puzzled over the remote controlled car that didn’t want to go properly. They checked it all out from every angle and then realised that it was the batteries that were the problem – they all needed to be replaced – both in the car and in the remote controller. Meanwhile the carpenter fixed the wobbly leg on the wooden chair someone brought in and the bike repairer worked out why the chain was falling off the bike all the time.

All in all, including the woman who had her necklace fixed and the guy who was advised to go down the road to get a new fuse for his CD/DVD player, which was then put in for him (but I won’t go on and on), 65 percent of the items brought in were fixed, and another 10 percent of the people got good advice on what to do or where to go to get their item fixed. All that was valued at $3,500. Not bad for three hours at your local café!

So once again the Repair Café movement has saved items from going to landfill, has added a little to the happiness quotient in these uncertain times, and brought people together in a sense of community.

This Repair Café was supported by the volunteers who gave their time, Une-Deux Café which provided the premises for free, a Waitemata Local Board grant, and importantly Doughnut Economics Advocacy New Zealand (DEANZ), who put it all together as part of their vision to revitalise the Repair Café movement around New Zealand and encourage social and environmental balance.  PN

For more information on DEANZ go to doughnuteconomicsnz.com

JOHN ELLIOTT: A CATCH UP WITH COUNCILLOR PIPPA COOM

It’s easy to forget, when you’re sitting at home, moaning about potential rate increases, criticising the way the City is developing, that most of our elected board members and councillors are dedicated to their jobs on our behalf, and work very hard.

I’ve been critical of tree loss, the refusal, so far, to ban the use of the carcinogenic glyphosate, loss of urban amenities during population intensification and other grizzles. So it was good timing to catch up with the Waitemata Ward Councillor, Pippa Coom, and get some perspectives from her.

Coom is warm, friendly, and easy to relate to. Council does not seem to have dimmed her enthusiasm for her important role. She is widely criticised by the anti-cycle lobby, and at 82 years I am not a candidate for cycling around Auckland’s difficult terrain either. However, the more people we can get out of cars and onto bikes, or into public transport, the better for our planet.

Overall, Pippa Coom feels the Council is running pretty well. She says Mayor Goff has adopted a bi-partisan approach to governing, and sought to eliminate party politics from council discussions; Mayor Goff appointed Desley Simpson to the finance role. I am on record calling for that approach, and I’m pleased some progress has been made. There will be philosophical differences between councillors on some issues, but as I’ve said before, ‘a footpath is a footpath is a footpath, and neither right nor left politically’.

Pippa Coom is co-chair of the Hauraki Gulf Forum, so I talked to her about the sad state of kai moana in the gulf. She agrees there must be more of the gulf placed in reserve. I told her I was impressed to read about the rahui put around one nautical mile around Waiheke, which Chlöe Swarbrick supported and engaged with. But I asked Pippa should we be leaving this urgent task to Maori alone. I told her about the rahui my partner and I supported at Matapouri, when the Mermaid Pools were being trashed.

Pippa Coom reassured me that both Central and Local government are on the Hauraki case. She sent me a copy of a letter which Mayor Goff had sent to the Minister for Oceans, David Parker, supporting very strongly the action by Ngati Paoa. All well and good, but as Chloe Swarbrick said, “The anchors of economic consideration weigh disproportionately heavy.”

Phil Goff’s letter went on... “While the current initiative by Ngati Paoa addresses an immediate desire to improve the status of four shellfish species (koura, scallop, paua, and mussels) there is a bigger picture to consider.”

Pippa Coom assured me the target of 30 percent of the gulf in marine sanctuaries is desirable. Let’s cut quotas to the bone, impose more sanctuaries like Goat Island, and give our plundered kai moana a chance to recuperate.

I asked Pippa about tree cover in the Waitemata Ward, and Auckland–wide. She believes our board will achieve its target of 30 percent coverage by 2050. That is pretty ambitious, especially when more trees are being pole-axed every day, including some by AT on local streets, and some unnecessarily by developers. I have been quoting Easter Island, as outlined in Jared Diamond’s classic book, ‘Collapse’, and I saw a letter to the Herald quote the book too. I asked Pippa Coom to remember that exotic trees, especially mature ones, are excellent carbon sinks. Let’s not have tree apartheid - natives are good, exotics are bad. That won’t do anything for de-colonisation.

Those of us who care, must follow the evolution of the new Acts of Parliament which will replace the Resource Management Act, or more environmental damage could well eventuate. I’m not confident in David Parker as Minister of the Environment; I hope I’m wrong.

I also discussed the selling of assets with Pippa, including small pieces of land. I suggested school buildings should get more use out of school hours. She agreed.

I told Pippa I supported a rates increase of 5 percent to cover Covid-19 losses, but I’m wary about a plethora of targeted rates. She assured me these do not go into the big pot; they are ring-fenced for the job they have been collected for.

Of course I pushed again for the banning of the carcinogenic glyphosate. “Sometimes politics is the art of the possible,” Pippa quite rightly pointed out.

There is much to be done to make Auckland anywhere near the world’s most livable city - Covid-19 hasn’t helped - nor has a top heavy bureaucracy, and too many consultants gobbling up millions. But this week I actually felt sorry for local politicians, especially board members. They get paid a pittance for hours of work, and most of us wouldn’t go near the job with a forty foot barge poll.

See elsewhere in this edition of Ponsonby News my articles on amenity values, with the Waitemata Board’s response, and a forewarning of a desire to push for citizen’s assemblies in Auckland.

We can improve democracy, but let’s use our politicians, not abuse them. (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN