FREIDA MARGOLIS SATURDAY MARKET

Saturday 6 May

PONSONBY U3A: MAY 2023

The Mighty Kauri

At the May meeting of Ponsonby U3A, members were held spellbound at the hands of Dr Mels Barton. In a seamless and captivating style, Dr Barton explained why the kauri is so special, how it is threatened and what can be done about it. An environmental scientist with a degree in Geology and Physical Geography and a PhD in estuarine sediment transport processes, Dr Barton’s expertise and knowledge were palpable.

Kauri, vital to New Zealand’s ecology, has been around for 250 million years as a keystone species and plays a pivotal role in the Northern New Zealand podocarp forest ecosystem.

Over the last 200 years, the use of kauri for ship and house building removed 99% of the trees with a subsequent regrowth of only 3%. The biggest concentrations of kauri are in the Waitakere Ranges, Hunua Ranges and Waipoua State Forest, leaving the fragmented remainder vulnerable to pests, weeds and people.

And then came the dreaded pathogen. Phytophthora, literally 'plant destroyer', has about 500 species living in soil and water across the world. It has killed many species such as the Irish potato crop. Not a fungus, it produces something like 10,000 spores on a pinhead of soil. Able to swim and aided by climate change, it is spread by movement of soil, water and plant material. First discovered in Aotea/Great Barrier Island in 1972, and again in Piha in 2006, it was identified as phytophthora agathidicida.

There is no cure yet. In the Waitakere Ranges, in five years it spread from affecting 8% to 19% of kauri, exacerbated by decades of walkers and equipment on badly degraded track systems. It was not until it got to this critical stage in 2017 that the local iwi led the charge to act, maintaining that if we lose kauri, we lose the forest that cleans our air and water catchments. Unheeded by council, Te Kawerau ā Maki placed a rāhui and volunteers embarked on a massive campaign around the tracks to educate visitors. Eventually the council voted unanimously to close the Waitakere and Hunua Ranges and to designate $100 million to upgrade tracks.

As well, Dr Barton spearheads Kauri Rescue, a citizen science project (so far with council funding) which helps private landowners to treat their kauri die-back affected trees to mitigate the disease for free. (www.kaurirescue.org.nz)

All we can do is stop the spread. Educate everyone about the importance of cleaning boots and tools, upgrade the infrastructure, spend more on research and, most importantly, continue to work with iwi who are the proven guardians.

Jane Jones, long-standing member of U3A gave the customary 10-minute presentation. She began in sign language and went on to tell a heart-warming story. It was a salute to the support services of our health system. Central to her narrative was Sophia, her now six-year-old granddaughter. Sophia was born 15 weeks early and maybe through prematurity or drugs, she was found to have a hearing deficiency. Jane described the tortuous journey in the middle of the night trying to get Sophia’s mother to hospital over the Takaka Hill to Nelson, Christchurch and, later, Wellington Hospitals. Jane paid tribute to the wrap-around services they encountered from ambulances and Flying Doctor services to the neonatal units and Ronald MacDonald House. Jane finished with a photo of that little girl, who puts in her hearing aids every morning, speaks normally and, as an aspiring gymnast, now regularly stands on her head.

Ponsonby U3A welcomes newcomers. If you are interested in attending, first as a visitor, please call President Ian Smith on M: 021 130 2330. (CHRISTINE HART)  PN

NEXT MEETING: FRIDAY, 9 June at 9.30am

GUEST SPEAKER: John Tamihere, Waipareira Trust

VENUE: Herne Bay Petanque Club, Salisbury Reserve, Salisbury Street, Herne Bay

ENQUIRIES: Ian Smith, President, Ponsonby U3A. M: 021 130 2330, www.u3a.nz

CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Auckland Central MP

Our built, natural and social environments are saturated in political decisions.

Those decisions reflect priorities: what gets resourcing, what gets protected, who get what opportunities.

These historical decisions are why there’s an approximate $100 billion infrastructure deficit in this country, felt profoundly in our neighbourhoods throughout the Auckland Anniversary floods.

They’re why we have the greatest rates of wealth inequality on record, contributing to challenges with social cohesion, crime and, obviously, child poverty. It’s why the many hardworking and incredible migrants who contribute to our city and communities are unnecessarily fighting through a callous and inhumane immigration system which, as your local MP, I have the privilege to support them through.

But the past does not define our future.

Aotearoa New Zealand has been the international petri dish for many a ‘radical’ economic transformation: in the 30s and 40s with the social safety net and in the 80s and 90s with the concerted effort to shred that social contract.

In 2023, in the face of these climate change charged weather events and recent IRD and Treasury research showing the wealthiest in this country pay a lower effective tax rate than the average Kiwi, we are presented with the clear choice to transform public and economic policy once again to meet the challenges of our time.

I saw the consequences of current, systemic exhaustion in the faces of local Principals I met recently to talk about challenges in the education sector. They pleaded for cross-partisan accord on resourcing to ensure adequate staffing and ratios for our teachers to teach and kids to learn. They lambasted that the curriculum has become such a political football. They spoke about their schools, understandably, being the catchall for community stress, fatigue and complexity.

While we can and should fund our schools properly, the underlying drivers of the problems landing in (or not, as school absence figures also point to challenges with) our classrooms are economic. They speak to deprivation in our communities – not just of resources, but of time and a constant bombarding of the ‘unprecedented’ (think pandemics, flooding and now record inflation) eroding bandwidth.

The Police, our business associations, bars and venues tell me the same thing. People are tired and stressed.

Resilience isn’t a commodity you can buy off the shelf. It’s a community trait. It’s the safety that comes with knowing our neighbours and being able to spot and prevent unacceptable behaviour through accountability and responsive public services.

It’s the support that comes with having time to invest in relationships with friends and whānau. It’s the innovation that comes from high trust for community-minded people testing ideas like community patrols and activating public spaces for celebrations of who we are, like Ponsonby Market Day.

It's why, as the speeches in Parliament reflect, I was disappointed with the Government Budget in mid-May. It chose not to transform, but to tinker. While we can celebrate the wins of extended free and half-price public transport, early childhood education for two-year-olds, homes insulation and the waiving of prescription fees, the underlying drivers of many of our social ills remain. They are inadequate incomes, crumbling public infrastructure and insecure housing. The Greens, as always, keep taking that fight to the halls of power.

While we continue to grapple with the outcomes of this economic model in Auckland Central, doing everything to support and advocate and help people navigate the system, we also continue developing our own community solutions.

Whether it’s supporting teachers in their fight for fair pay and conditions, our firefighters in getting the resources for a station rebuild, wrangling council and Government to restore the St James, For the Love of Bees community gardens, Sunday Blessings, our Māori Wardens or local businesses in getting outdoor dining, we should never discount our own grassroots power to change our world locally. (CHLÖE

SWARBRICK)

CHLÖE SWARBRICK, T: 09 378 4810, E: chloe.swarbrick@parliament.govt.nz www.greens.org.nz/chloe_swarbrick