Potency posited
Oh dear. It seems that, despite our allegedly helpless impotence, we have obtained a copy of the Westgate letter. Right off the Diva's desk. You'll find it here.
The crucial sentence isn't any of the ones selectively quoted by the Diva (now there's a surprise) but that which says Westgate "can not deal with them (PoW) without Council's indication that they want us to do so".
Not "don't wish to" deal with PoW. Not even "don't favour" dealing with PoW. Just can not, without Council permission. And that's likely to be forthcoming - not.
Then again, that interpretation of the law is probably based on the Port of Wanganui Act, which we've already discovered is hopelessly out of date.
Which is not to say LawsWatch thinks Westgate ought to deal with PoW, or that PoW's plans are viable, superior or anything else. Frankly, we don't give a damn, since we're not PortWatch. We'd just like some accountability from all involved.
So thanks Diva, Westgate, PoW and the rest, for your sterling efforts in keeping Wanganui informed. Your behaviour over this matter towards the citizens who put you where you are today reflects perfectly your real attitude toward them: not so much "eat cake" as "bite me". But you'd do well to remember, being bitten can be a very unpleasant experience.
Comments on this post are now closed.
82 comments:
"[the inland port]will need to stand upon its own commercial merits. We have no intention of contributing ratepayers' money to the venture. Our role is to assist the venture and to play facilitator as required." - M Laws WDC website today.
Phew, that's a relief Michael. It's good to know the future of the inland port is in such safe hands.
What can go wrong now, with you and your lackeys assisting and facilitating?
Perhaps you'd now care to spell out just exactly to whom you're prepared to extend your assistance and facilitation.
What a lot of incompetent fools we must look. WDC asking Taranaki who they want to deal with, when all the time the decision belongs to Council and Council alone. Does Laws ever stop to check the facts before he launches his gobshite.
I figure Capt Roy Weaver will be steering the good ship Westgate into dry dock back in Taranaki right now and he won't be sailing south again till there's a sober competent mayor on the bridge of HMS Whanganui.
Sloop Roy Weaver Song
So hoist up the Westgate sail
See how the port plan sinks
Call for the captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home
The crap mayor he caught the fits
And threw away all my bits
And then he took and he ate up all of my plan
Let me go home
Why don’t they let me go home
This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on
So hoist up the Westgate sail
See how the port plan sinks
Call for the captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, let me go home
Why don’t you let me go home
Thought Sean H. did a good job in the Chron today. I was appalled to hear the mayor up to his dirty tricks yet again.
Does anyone know more about the CJ meetings? Maybe he's offered to build the Heart of Whanganui project on the cheep.!
Great new blogg, thanks Lawswatch. I'll tell my mates about it.
Doesn't CJ own the old Woollies building? Maybe Michael wants it for his downtown office.
Laws released the Westgate letter to the Chronicle and distributed it far & wide yesterday. Even I have a copy so Lawswatch probably has a copy of a copy of a copy. Fair enough but one shouldn't try to claim some sort of grand larceny
:)
Sloop John B eh?
Feels more like Nine Months in a Leaky Boat down here. But my, how time flies when you're being screwed.
Read the WDC website and the Mayor's latest release. Westgate approached council. Now the problem here would be that Laws' office is releasing the evidence and Tuffy isn't. Doesn't fit the prejudice does it?
Hate, hate, hate.
C'mon Carol & Matt. You're better than this. Hate is destroying your lives. Find God - He loves you.
Yes, let's all get up to St Chad's on Sunday and join hands, eh Michael?
Sorry kiddies but that won't work. You're supposed to be worshipping Saint Michael. Let's face it, if there was a god, she wouldn't have dumped ML on Wanganui.
I think you've got it wrong. They don't join hands at St Chads do they? Isn't that why St Michael turned all nasty with the Christ Church crowd?
And after a severe dose of the St Michaels, the good people of St Chads probably fervently believe that they're worshipping a very vengeful god.
But then as St Michael himself once said, love the sinner, hate the sin.
I understand he was very nice about the Code complainants in his community address at Gonville. He described them as "unusual people". that's not so bad is it?
I got a copy of that Westgate letter too. Think it went all round council yesterday.
Check out the WDC website. News releases.
Anonylaws:
"Laws released the Westgate letter to the Chronicle and distributed it far & wide yesterday. Even I have a copy so Lawswatch probably has a copy of a copy of a copy."
Sshush kiddies. It appears the Diva himself is present among us. Let the Great One speak.
Perhaps he could start by telling us all why, if indeed he did spread copies of the letter far and wide,
1. why he was so frugal in sharing the facts with the great unwashed readers of the WDC website;
and
2. why he (or was it the Spin Fairy acting on her own volition just like Antoinette?) put a blatantly misleading spin on the letter's contents.
the floor's all yours, Michael.
First it is wrong not to circulate the Westgate letter (conspiracy is a foot!), then it is wrong to have spread it far and wide (ulterior motives).
How do you walk down a street without jumping at your own shadow? Your problem is you are so busy doing nothing but complain you lose track of what exactly it is you are complaining about.
ML continues to do what he said he would. Keep people advised and call things as he sees them. This will be the reason his team are reelected in 3 years time and you will still be running a blog to complain.
and therein lies the problem. The Diva's idea of "akeeping the people advised and calling things as he sees them" is drawn straight from the Mushroom Farmers" Handbook.
That isn't an answer. Hating Laws is starting to become a psychological condition - get a real life.
We're not running a blog to complain, anonymous, we're running one to inform. That others vent their frustration here is indicative that all is not happy in the hamlet of Wanganui.
And that others find something as relatively innocuous as LawsWatch so threatening that they constantly complain suggests we're doing something right.
Meanwhile, so long as the selective release of information masquerades as open government, we'll continue to inform as best we can.
Now the problem here would be that Laws' office is releasing the evidence and Tuffy isn't. Doesn't fit the prejudice does it?
Leaving aside the fact that the Diva releases information selectively and only when it favours him, you're right - Port of Wanganui Limited were asked a series of questions and failed to offer any response at all. Which bespeaks of a Diva-like reluctance to be held accountable, an unwillingness to accept scrutiny of their ideas, or both.
Westgate will indeed be sailing north, wondering if anyone in Wanganui is competent to negotiate with.
Inform? What a joke. There's nothing here so far that I couldn't pick up from a combination of the Chronicale or the WDC website. Sure, there's opinion, a little bile and a lot of outrage but information? I don't think so and I started off sympathetic to this blog. I've been impressed with what Laws puts on the WDC website. I reserve the right to disagree with his interpretations but he's more open than Chas or the last council ever were. For example, I supported the SGTB but I did not know that the "promised" $1 million from "an Auckland art lover" was NOT promised nor even pledged. I did know that AFTER I read the documents released by Michael Laws in the public library. You have to be consistent - and have lived here awhile. Hate it as I originally did, this new council has given me more information about where/how my rates dollars are spent in the past nine months than in the previous nine years.
I agree totally with LawsWatch on Tuffy & POW. They've had the opportunity to answers questions, and haven't. I disagree with the mayor on arts, but I agree with him on the harbour.
'Promised million' Those letters were 'selected' too. Please don't trust this man. Napier .... Napier .. please take him back.
Yes, it's alarming that someone with Laws track record on honesty and openness garners such respect. It seems those who do not learn from history...live in Wanganui.
Anon said
"For example, I supported the SGTB but I did not know that the "promised" $1 million from "an Auckland art lover" was NOT promised nor even pledged. I did know that AFTER I read the documents released by Michael Laws in the public library."
But when he told you about that, did he say that it was the trust board, or did he tell the truth and admit he hasn't got a clue who said it was promised? In fact, the only mention I can find of a "promise" was that made by a submitter to last years annual plan, not the trust board. I think this casual remark was repeated by council officers, not the SGTB. If Laws could show the SGTB said it, he would. The fact that he can't show the least bit of evidence to support his assertions leads me to believe that he's making it up, but you just swallow his line.
Who cares whether it was pledged, promised, or read by tea-leaves. The FACT is that Dr. Robin Congreve would have been true to his word.
"There's nothing here so far that I couldn't pick up from a combination of the Chronicale or the WDC website"
well good for you. But you didn't, did you, you let us collate it and you read it here, plus a bunch of analysis and open debate.
I think people somehow imagine Lawswatch publishing photographs of Laws and Whitlock enjoying one another while Graham Capill watches. The point of this blog is to expose the spinner. When the so-called leader of a community has to resort to spin as part of a perfect expression of everything he believes in then Houston, we have a problem. It's like the watchers said, they're elected to serve, not rule.
There's never going to be a smoking gun, and sometimes Michael's spin will blend alarmingly with reality, but the fact is that we cannot allow pollies to talk shit without challenge. So the Chron. might be better resourced than the Watchers, but the Watchers' resources are everywhere, all the time, and they work for nothing.
Anon said
"hate hate hate"
The only hate around here is in Porrit St.
Hate is the sole prerogative of people who don't get their way, and don't ever expect to get it.
Like middle-aged spinsters.
Is anon blind? You can't fake the letters I read up in the library. There were two letters from Dr Congreve and they expressly ruled out any commitment or pledge of $1 million. And where did I read this "promise"? The same place that most Wanganui people did - in the SGTB pamphlet I received asking for money, in the local newspaper quoting Bill Millbank, in the council's own publications! Don't take us all for fools, LawsWatch. Just because you ASSERT something to be so, doesn't make it so. I read NO evidence from the SGTB that put the lie to the mayor's releases.
If you read the WDC website today, you'll see that Westgate approached WDC on the inland port. Why would Tuffy lie about this?
Why would Tuffy lie? Try habit of a lifetime. I'm not sure how we ended up defending the guy in this blog just because Laws dismisses him. Let's pick our battles, people.
[Blah blah SGTB... blah blah... Congreve... letter... pledge...] Don't take us all for fools, LawsWatch. Just because you ASSERT something to be so, doesn't make it so. I read NO evidence from the SGTB that put the lie to the mayor's releases.
Ahem. Might we point out that LawsWatch asserted no such thing? A commenter did. Read the entire blog, you'll find we have made no assertions on this matter one way or another.
"There were two letters from Dr Congreve and they expressly ruled out any commitment or pledge of $1 million"
That isn't the same as saying the money wasn't there. Do you know how large charitable donations work? No-one donates, pledges or promises anything, but when the time comes they write the cheques. The FACT is that Dr. Robin Congreve would have made good on his word, and you have nothing that suggests otherwise. When you can show me a document that Bill or David issued I'll believe you, but as you yourself say: it appeared in WDC literature, not SGTB. Laws can spin and froth and bullshit to his hearts content, but the reality is that he wrecked a project that would have been great for Wanganui.
In fact, now I think about it, so what if the SGTB was over-enthusiatic? How does that invalidate the arguments for an extension? In the end its a red herring. Just another beauty contest in place of responsible governance.
Anon said:
"I read NO evidence from the SGTB that put the lie to the mayor's releases."
Actually, when you're accusing people of something, it is incumbent on the accuser to provide the proof. Laws has stated publicly that he has no proof. That is to say, he made it up. But you simply believe him. You put your trust in Michael Laws, in spite of his track record. I'm sure he's flattered by such a display of blind faith, but you'll excuse me for thinking you ridiculous.
I was trying to offer a sensible contribution on the SGTB and the Congreve million, so I didn't expect such anger in return. However, I won't be intimidated and all I can do is comment on the documents in front of me as I write this. I received them as a Sarjeant supporter and they include a SGTB pamphlet with a table showing the $1 million "pledged", they include a newsletter using the word "promised" (neither name the benefactor) and I have a newspaper clipping written by Mary Bryan (who does a wonderful job for the arts) quoting Bill Milbank last August 2004 and he uses the word "promised". I then compare those documents with the letters I read at the library dated 2001 and 2003 from Dr Congreve where he explicitly states he neither promised nor pledged the money. He emphasises those points.
But he did offer to find it for us, didn't he? And he would have made good on that promise wouldn't he? And none of these SGTB members is to my knowledge a lawyer, are they? So their use of over-enthusiastic language is hardly the capital offence Laws claims. It's a red herring, in fact. Vision were elected with a mandate to "review" the Gallery extension decision, not destroy the gallery's management structure.
"I was trying to offer a sensible contribution on the SGTB "
Hi Nigel - that's a nice new website the Diva has.
lawswatch: Oh dear. It seems that, despite our allegedly helpless impotence, we have obtained a copy of the Westgate letter. Right off the Diva's desk. You'll find it here.
Gee real moles arent you! You got it from his web site which isnt really off his desk at all. But only you and around 500 million other people have access to the site so I guess it is a real coup!
Yes, Lawswatch, you must be doing something wrong, we've actually got a debate going on. How Michael must hate it that people he can't control are discussing his dishonourable practices.
I think he would be flattered. Yiu misunderstand the man. And amused ...
If directors of a company resign, it's shareholders elect a new board. The Sarjeant Gallery Trust Board is an empty shell. Michael and Nicki are pretending that this is just fine, and they are lying: it's not fine, it's a black mark against Wanganui nationally and internationally. When are you people going to realise that we have an amazing resource in the Sarjeant, and Michael Laws has done nothing but run it down in the name of bigotry. He says he's "good for Wanganui" and you just bend over.
Slash the budget for the mayoral toilet. Demolish it and use it as office space. The mayor should have to use the same facilities as all other Council employees. This cloacal elitism must stop. End the 3-ply extravagance!
I was not aware that the mayoral bathroom had received a makeover. I've read it here, but where's the proof? Nothing in any council documents.
A special bog for the boy ?
Love to see the washing setup...ever noticed how pink his hands are?
Yes I'd like to see the proof. Why doesn't someone do an OIA? Or better still - just ask.
This is BAD ... you people are getting sucked into irrelevance. Why can't you dickheads stick to the threads? Take your inanities elsewhere.
End this selfish and costly elitism. Why should ratepayers maintain a private toilet? How many of you have a private loo in your workplace? What's the matter with the one the other staff use. Who does he think he is, Montgomery Burns?
I was under the impression that the POW plan was released quite a while ago, but now its said that it was a NP idea...
is there a chronology to this ?
Chronology, Harold. Good Question. I think PoW had the idea on the table in 2003, but you'd have to ask them to confirm that.
Down with the mayoral dunny! It's expensive, extravagant and elitist. We must cut our cloth to suit our budget!
Whatever the chronology, can you honestly see Westgate wanting to spend Taranaki ratepayers money dealing with us lot? They're accountable, and they seem to take that quite seriously.
How does a mayoral bathroom that was put in during the time of Reg Andrews cost the ratepayer money?
anon 10:08...
well the mayor is saying it was NP idea, POW say theirs...chronology would sort it out.
But I agree about NP involvement here. Why would a hugley succesful port get involved in developing competion nearby ?
"How does a mayoral bathroom that was put in during the time of Reg Andrews cost the ratepayer money?"
more hand washing gear ?
Westgate approached the WDC.
Yeah but it's hardly the mayor's fault. He gets approached in December last year by Westgate to help them develop an inland port. What does he do? tell them to bugger off? Of course not. POW - with no money or visible backers - claim its their idea. So does that mean Westgate stole it? That's the only conclusion you could draw, Not Laws, Westgate.
Harold Land said:
But I agree about NP involvement here. Why would a hugley succesful port get involved in developing competion nearby ?
10:13 AM
A Wanganui inland port wouldn't compete with New Plymouth, it would allow them to expand their capacity: the NP docks have no room to expand.
As to a deep water port, that might become more attractive if (when?) the river resumes its original course.
Anonymous said...
How does a mayoral bathroom that was put in during the time of Reg Andrews cost the ratepayer money?
10:09 AM
3-Ply toilet paper?
Extra cleaning, extra time to pay cleaning staff for.
Harold is right. This inland port is in Westgate's best interests because they're competing agst Napier, wellington & tauranga for shipping product. Of course its Westgate's idea and PoW are just trying to freeload. The mayor has done exactly the right thing in dismissing POW (who is POW other than Tuffy Churtin?) as dreamers.
You poor sad people. worrying about 5 minutes of cleaning time over a toilet.
"This inland port is in Westgate's best interests"
But where's the money coming from? There's never been any suggestion that WPoT would spend Taranaki ratepayers money building an inland hub down here. Straddle cranes, security guards, etc. etc. All these things cost money, and our elected representatives will not be using ours. So the fact remains that the project needs investors. If Tuffy and PoW have been trying to find money (from Macquarie etc.) to do it good on them I say. You should perhaps remember that until Laws came along PoW was WDC's preferred manager for the port. Laws has yet to explain who he favours to become richer and how he's going to help them.
End the selfish dunny dictatorship! Stop the waste!
Anonymous said...
You poor sad people. worrying about 5 minutes of cleaning time over a toilet.
11:03 AM
It's called populism, bro. Down with elistist poop. Stop pissing on our pockets.
The mayoral waste
With indecent haste
Must flow into the sewer
But you must know before you go
That mayoral waste is purer.
No common earth closet for he
Nor common pissoir neither
He must needs piss in his own pot
Porcelain shiny brass the lot
And a daily dunny cleaner.
Sad!
Harold: But I agree about NP involvement here. Why would a hugley succesful port get involved in developing competion nearby?
Because it is not competition and in fact good placement. Wanganui is better situated than New Plymouth to capture market share from CentrePort in Wellington. If people in the lower North Island only had to ship to Wanganui their costs are significantly lower. Then an inland port is all about sending the frieght fully packed and customs cleared to load and ship in New Plymouth.
Which is also why POW were never going to be Westgates first choice if there was anyone else. They need market credibility and a new age guru who talks bio-mass and a ex-crim (yeah, I know dues have been paid but it is still a fact) wouldnt cut it. However if Council are backing it they can start to pull in the real money.
After all POW have never introduced a real investor who has stood up and said we are here and ready. Last I read the only identified investor the deep throats in this blog and the ferrets at the chron could name still hasnt been identified apart from one company office registration for a paper company doing nothing.
Anon said:
"an inland port is all about sending the frieght fully packed and customs cleared to load and ship in New Plymouth."
Right, so who does Laws intend to get the contract? Are there any other players in the mix? Who's this Colin Cashmore? Are we going to see some genuine good old fashioned capitalist competition for this or will it just be jobs for the boys as usual?
Incidently, it's funny to hear people describing this project using Bill Pearce's rhetoric then bag him in the same post.
"Because it is not competition and in fact good placement. Wanganui is better situated than New Plymouth to capture market share from CentrePort in Wellington. If people in the lower North Island only had to ship to Wanganui their costs are significantly lower."
I see thanks :)
Whose rhetoric? Where did pearce get it from?
An astral projection or as according to others in this blog - someone elses report.
The only POW person who had any cred was Tim Hungerford-Morgan. He at least had real sea and port knowledge. And where is he now?
Anon: Right, so who does Laws intend to get the contract?
Apart from the fact WDC doesnt control who gets the contract, it can certainly get various groups to register an interest and then see who will pay most for the land. Centreport, Port of Tauranga, Port of Auckland could all potentially see a benefit from a centrally placed lower North Island location with low land costs and more space than is available in an urban centre.
Old chinese fortune cookie say: it takes two people to bid price higher.
Yes, so let's hope there are some serious players now PoW have done us all the favour of publicising the project.
How does a mayoral bathroom that was put in during the time of Reg Andrews cost the ratepayer money?
I think it's the gold-plated capex that sticks in the craw of the hoi polloi - and the fact that it was one of the first acts of the new austerity regime ushered in by St Michael. Along with the boy-racer accoutrements on the car of course.
NP had the advantage of a 'natural' harbour...
Diverting the river here is all very well but the silt load and literal sand drift down the coast will always need mega dredging.
But with the cost of oil, sea will continue to gain over air (cargo hub)
yeah, bizarrely. Laws saved money by going to Honda and buying locally, then wasted $9,000 (?rumoured?) having the thing tarted up. D'oh!
Harold Land said...
NP had the advantage of a 'natural' harbour...
Diverting the river here is all very well but the silt load and literal sand drift down the coast will always need mega dredging.
But with the cost of oil, sea will continue to gain over air (cargo hub)
12:50 PM
A few more floods might well divert the river for us :)
THE SHIPPING NEWS
"Are there any other players in the mix? Who's this Colin Cashmore?"
Sorry this is a bit long and is just what I've been able to piece together from bits on the web.
Cashmore is Director of River City Port Ltd (RCP), which Ocean Terminals chose over Port of Wanganui in 2004 to receive the "assets" when the Colin Whitlock-chaired Ocean Terminals bailed out after years of Harbour Endowment payments and apparently building up a chunk of debt (see below). (Whitlock is now council's representative on RCP Ltd).
If you think the PoW intentions need clarifying, what RCP is on about is as muddy as the river basin after a three-day storm. But Laws doesn't seem to be screaming at Cashmore to name names, reveal all, etc. Perhaps that's because his audit committee has cosy little chats about such matters with the public excluded (citing commercial sensitivity).
Cashmore didn't front at last week's harbour committee meeting but a letter from him said River City Port was working on a Port Area Redevelopment Plan and is "exploring ways in which increased return on investment from various development opportunities can be used to fund port redevelopment etc".
Cashmore says the draftplan will be released in October this year.
From NZ Shipping News online:
Ocean Terminals Ltd. had its genesis in the demise of the Wanganui Harbour Board. It was formed in 1988 when it entered into a lease with the Wanganui District Council to operate the Port of Wanganui. Ocean Terminals has perpetual rights to renewed lease terms of five years and the latest renewal, in July 2003, is the third.
In 1986, when the Wanganui Harbour Board was wound up, the assets were transferred to Wanganui City Council, as it was then. The council entered into a lease with the major prospective users of the port, and Ocean Terminals was formed.
Ocean Terminals received about $300,000 each year in net rental from harbour endowment lands. It received only “very minor income” from the port operation and without harbour endowment rental it could not run the port. The lease states that rental is payable to the council for the port facilities only if a dividend is declared, but the company had never declared a dividend. It is understood that Ocean Terminals has an $800,725 debt to Wanganui Trawlers Ltd. connected with past dredging work.
anon: Mary Bryan (who does a wonderful job for the arts)
Yes, didn't Mary do a wonderful job with Saturday's piece in the Chron about Ross M-A's assemblage for the Wellington exhbition... "A topiary cacti representing Wanganui's mayor and his press secretary" with the assembled bottle jacks and brown jugs as officers and councillors. And thanks Mary for reminding readers about the political death that followed the Diva's Hawke's Bay "frolic".
BTW: Who has tried holding that page up to the light to see what's on the back? Turns out the Mayoress's right boob is beautifully placed so it seems to be protruding from the potter's ear LOL.
Where else but in WangaVegas?
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