Only Government Cash Can Save Stadium

The plan for a new Stadium is dead unless the the Government comes up with money to replace the shortfall from other funding sources. The fund-raising from the private sector is well-short of target and the Community Trust of Otago has suffered from the current financial decline and no longer has a spare $10 million. I have no doubt that intense lobbying is going on to try to get cash from the new National Government's "infrastructure" spendup.
But the Government should be aware that giving money which enables the Stadium to go ahead will be controversial and unpopular with a large proportion of Otago people. Locals would be still left with high rates and an enormous debt to repay.
Surveys and submissions to local bodies have consistently shown a significant majority opposed to a new Stadium if it is largely publicly funded.

Slack Management Allows Otago DHB Fraud

Otago District Health Board Chairman, Richard Thomson, is talking a lot about the $17.8 million fraud by Michael Swann. We are getting lots of excuses, but no-one is being held to account for the slack management.

Richard Thomson says:

One of Brian Rousseau's early actions after his arrival here was to get an independent review done of our IT strategy.

The reviewers' list does not include the "contracts" because, if they existed at the time, Swann made sure they were not available to review.

But why was the total value of the reviewed contracts not compared with the actual amount being spent on IT: the fraud would have then been apparent. A diligent manager would have done this, but Brian Rousseau did not.
The responsibility for the culture of an organisation ultimately lies the the man at the top. Richard Thomson was Chairman during almost all the time the fraud was taking place. He would gain respect if he did the decent thing and resigned.

Otago Rugby Wants Profit From Carisbrook

The Otago Rugby Football Union wants to make a profit from selling Carisbrook to the Carisbrook Stadium Trust, while the public is expected to pay almost all the cost of the new Stadium.
It is easy to see why: Otago Rugby needs the money. It owes the Dunedin City Council $2 million and the Bank of New Zealand $4million after losing $2.6 million over the previous two seasons. And another substantial loss is likely for the current season given the small crowds witch attended matches this year.

Allanton Wastewater Funding

I believe that current residents only paying 20 % of the Capital cost of the Wastewater Systems is far too generous and this will be a very expensive precedent.
In theory, current residents will pay 20% of their share of the capital cost, and future developers will pay 100%. But the Council will finance the share for the undeveloped sections in the meantime.
As few sections will be developed in the foreseeable future, the Council will end up paying for 80% of the current residents share plus almost all of the share for the undeveloped sections. For Allanton, this will be about 93% of the capital cost.
I cannot see any logical reason why current residents should be treated any differently than future residents. If there are public health issues, then they are caused by pollution by current residents. Whatever happened to polluter pays?
If this precedent is followed for future projects of this type, the cost to the Council will be many millions of dollars.

A New Government

A New Government has been voted in.
Whatever good the Labour Government may have done, New Zealand's standard of living has fallen behind that of other countries over the last nine years. That is why so many people are moving to Australia.
But the new National Government has policies little different from those of Labour. It is hard to see how there will be a change in outcome without a change of policy.

Orokonui Kaka Released

A great day for our City: Six kaka have been released in the Orokonui EcoSanctuary.
This is the start of the re-creation of the wonderful New Zealand bush of old.

ODT calls for DCC to "Cut its Cloth"

The Dunedin Ciy Council finance head, Athol Stephens, recently warned that, in the face of an economic downturn, major city projects may need to be reconsidered.
The ODT has now added it's voice:

As Dunedin's debt grows, it also faces a credit rating downgrade, albeit small, which means the interest rate it has to pay on debts will rise. At the same time, income from the council-owned companies - which are used to subsidise rates - can be expected to decrease because they will not be immune from recession.Dunedin has no realistic choice other than to cut its cloth to match its current circumstances.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Dunedin cannot afford the new Stadium.
But it is hard to see the current Council changing direction.

Dunedin City Council Broadband

Information from Flute Networks:

Aurora Energy Ltd will be the network owner and Flute Network is the
Brand. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of Dunedin City Holdings Ltd,
who in turn are a wholly owned subsidiary of the DCC. Our role will be
to install and provide infrastructure which is dark optical fibre. We
will not be providing active equipment.

We will have a group of approved Partners who will connect to the Flute
Network. These Partners will all provide value added services including;
ISP services; management of the network; full IT solutions;
application/hardware hosting; applications. Alternatively you can engage
any IT Integrator to commission the fibre service.

Any company, organisation or individual can connect to the network. A
contract term of at least 3 years is common. Generally the decision to
purchase is driven by the need for connection speeds of 10Mb/s or
higher. The service is not targeted at domestic consumers at this stage
and is not likely to be economic in that situation in the short term.
As the network grows, there will be loops which will provide network
diversity.

What follows from this is that the success of this network will
depend on the price and specs of the services being offered by the
Partners.

Dunedin City Holdings Result Disappoints

The profit of Dunedin City Holdings is down to $8.6 million form 22.6 million last year. Although half of this drop is due cash being paid to the Council as interest rather than dividends, it is still a disappointing result.
Dunedin City Holdings has been a cash cow for the City Council, and the it is expecting DCH to provide $60 million towards the new Stadium. But this cash flow is under threat from DCH's declining profits.
Factors which could reduce future Dunedin City Holdings's profits include:

• Tourism downturn
• Construction downturn in Central Otago
• Investment in residential development in Luggate
• Investment in Broadband
• Investment in The Street
  

DCC Broadband Has No Internet ?

A post to the Dunedin Linux Users Group Mailing List suggests that the Dunedin City Council Broadband initiative does not include and Internet connection:

The plan as I understand it is that users in the CBD pay $995 per month
to lease a dark fibre pair which makes point to point link between two
locations.
To light up service, you either do your own thing, or get your ISP to
pick up service from the other end.
It's not a loop. It's not active service. It isn't Internet. It isn't
a residential service.
In ChCh where the business model is the same, you can pay $1800 per
month for a Gbps of cross-town capped or $2500 uncapped. That gets you
as far as the Internet exchange in ChCh, which is doing very well. ISP
services are on top.

There will be businesses for which this is useful. An ODT article claimed that "Businesses back broadband vision". But an across-Dunedin link will not allow business to avoid ISP's restrictions and fees.
There is a comment on this issue by "farsighted" on the ODT website.

The Decline of Otago Rugby and the Stadium

The current low state of Otago Rugby has consequences for the viability of the proposed new Stadium. Its operating budget relies on large crowds going to Super14 and NPC matches. The projected Operating Budget is based on Carisbrook crowds up to 2006. It is no secret Carisbrook crowd numbers have collapsed over the last two years, but the actual figures do seem to be secret. At the end of last year in a letter to the ODT, I asked for these figures (for last year), but the Carisbrook Stadium Trust declined the ODT's request to provide them.
I believe that the paid attendance figures for Super 14 and NPC matches at Carisbrook in 2007 and 2008 should be made publicly available. Then there can be a debate about what are realistic figures to be used in Stadium's operating budget. I have no doubt that using this year's figures would result in a significant deficit.

Great Stickers

Liu Yungeng in DScene

Dscene picked up this story from dunedinBlog.

If Peter Chin didn't know that Liu Yungeng was a human-rights abuser, then perhaps it was because he didn't want to know. People in Shanghai certainly know, and it is easy to find on Google.

The Dunedin City Council will be pleased that they sneaked Liu Yungeng in and out of the City to attend the police-guarded, invitation-only Chinese Garden opening, without attracting unwanted attention.

Equinox on Harbour Cone

I spent Tuesday with a small group celebrating the Spring Equinox by climbing Harbour Cone.
It was a warm evening with a blustery westerly wind blowing. After a steep climb, we watched the gathering dusk over the Peninsula and the Harbour and gave thanks for the wonderful place in which we live.
The marking of the Winter Solstice with the Lantern Parade has now become a Dunedin tradition. Now that Harbour Cone is publicly owned, maybe climbing our Magic Mountain on the Equinoxes can become another.

Liu Yungeng is a Human Rights Abuser

Chairman Liu Yungeng, head of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress
who was hosted in Dunedin last week for the official opening of the
Chinese Garden, has a record of Human Rights abuses. When he was
head of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau in 2006, he directed
police persecution of political dissidents. Reports on the "Human
Rights in China" website make disturbing reading. Liu Yungeng's
victims, most of whom did no more than attempt to make unwanted
submissions to the Party Congress, were subjected to restrictions on
their activities such as attending Church, house arrest, detention,
beatings, or disappearance.
Dunedin should not be welcoming such nasty Communist bullies as part
of the Sister City arrangement.

These links report activities from 2006:

http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision_id=27873&item_id=27872

http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision_id=31088&item_id=31085

http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/article?revision_id=31436&item_id=31434

Liu Yungeng and Public Security Bureau:

http://english.cri.cn/2946/2008/01/30/189@318959.htm

The Question They Don't Ask

The Dunedin City Council has just done it's annual residents' opinion survey.
But there is one obvious question which is never asked:

Are you satisfied with the level of rates?

Director for Early Settlers

The Dunedin City Council has decided to employ a new director for the Early Settlers Museum, rather than being run by the same director as the Public Art Gallery.
What ever the merits of doing this, it will cost ratepayers an extra $213,000 a year.

Dodds Won't Talk About "The Street"

It is easy to see why Bevan Dodds doesn't want to talk about "The Street", in this report from the ODT. How can The Mall Plus store which has been closed for weeks be "still going well"?
The assurances that the investment is low risk are looking increasingly hollow. It is time to open the books and show the true state of affairs.

A Dunedin start-up company partly financed by the Dunedin City Council's holding company is still operating, its chairman says, despite one of its products, a virtual mall, being on hold.

Dunedin City Holding Ltd (DCHL) has 1.2 million shares in The Street, for which it paid $700,000.

The company's virtual mall project, The Mall Plus, is not running on the Internet at the moment, with a "re-opening soon" notice on its home page and a link to Dunedin company Zeddd Technology.

The National Business Review ran a story recently that said the company had abandoned the online mall.

An anonymous letter to the Otago Daily Times this week said the company and its website had "collapsed".

DCHL chief executive Bevan Dodds, a director of The Street, refused to comment on the article, saying the NBR reporter had a "bee in his bonnet" about the company.

Asked if the NBR article was correct, he said he was not going to argue with its writer.

"I'm not going to go there. It's not worth commenting on," he said.

But chairman Geoff Thomas said yesterday both suggestions were incorrect.

Mr Thomas said The Mall Plus was "still going well", and it was being developed under licence by an outside company.

It was true the site was not operating, but there had been some sales while it was operating on an experimental basis.

The site needed enhancement and that was being done, Mr Thomas said.

Asked when DCHL might get a return on its investment, Mr Thomas said the company already had three contracts and was hoping to get more.

"And that's only one of many products The Street has," he said.

Mr Dodds said in 2006 an expected time frame for a return was three to five years.

Excellent Questions on Stadium

Councillors Dave Cull, Chris Staynes and Kate Wilson have an article in today's ODT with some excellent questions on the proposed Stadium.
We await answers from the Stadium proponents : it is hard to see anything convincing coming.

Free Software Legend Speaks on Tuesday

Richard Stallman will be talking on "Copyright vs. Community" this Tuesday.

Venue: Castle One lecture theatre, near the main library, Otago University.

Time: 6:30pm.

Richard is a Free Software leader, started the GNU project whose software is used in Linux, and whose license, the GPL is used by Linux and a large amount of free software. He is second only to Linus Torvalds in fame, but arguably greater in contribution.

The talk is free, but a collection will be taken to cover costs and there will most likely be a raffle of an RMS related art work as well.

Otago Daily Times refuses link to Blog

A post in the "No Minister" blog commented on Dr Bob Lloyd's article on global warming.
I attempted to add a comment on this article on ODT online, linking to this post. When it did not appear, I e-mailed the ODT asking why. They replied saying it was "just a link to a blog site".
I replied:

I think the fact that Dr Lloyd's article has attracted comment from a
leading NZ blog, and a leading Australian blog, is of interest to your
readers, who may wish to follow these links.
Comments on websites often have links to to other sites : that is what
makes it the Web.
Are you saying that the ODT online has a policy against links?

The reply from the ODT:

We handle comments and links on a case-by-case basis.

I replied again, asking what criteria were used, but have not had a response.
The irony is that the rejected post criticizes Dr Lloyd's advocacy of not giving space to politically-incorrect views.
I respect the right of the ODT to chose what appears on it's site, but others have the right to comment on these choices. To be fair, the ODT does include a range of opinions in it's columns e.g. Geoffrey Kearsley's sceptical view of global warming.

Our Online Mall's Doors Closed

The National Business Review reported yesterday (the story is not online) that the Online Mall belonging to the Dunedin company, The Street, has it's doors closed. You can see this here , with a "Re-opening Soon" sign.
The Dunedin City Council has a controversial investment of $700,000 in The Street.
The online mall used avatars to walk through the virtual shops. It may have been clever technology but it did not seem practical for real shopping.
It is going to very embarrassing for the Council if money is lost on this venture.
By the way, why is that the NBR often has insights into Dunedin affairs that are not found in the ODT?

Lloyd wants Opponents Silenced

Dr Lloyd (ODT, 7/8/08) does himself no credit by attacking the motives
of scientists who raise doubts about the global warming theory,
denying their right to be heard, and suggesting that their views are
equivalent to "promoting crime and violence". Scientists who support
this theory could just as well be criticized because of the millions
of dollars of research grants that they are given because of their
views. Otago University's administration will be pleased with Dr
Lloyd's article because it will help in getting favorable
consideration from the Government in requests for funding.
The reason that so many scientists are now questioning global warming
is because temperatures are not increasing as predicted. There has
been no increase in global average temperature since the peak of 1998,
and the very cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere has confirmed that
this up-trend has ended.
A strong case can be made that temperatures are no longer increasing,
and that the increase during the twentieth Century was due to natural
causes.
Dr Lloyd should debate the science rather than resorting to personal
attacks on his opponents.

Film Festival Picks

Bill Gosden's International Film Festival is always a bright spot in the gloom of a Dunedin Winter.
My picks from this year's movies:

Mongol : The story of Gengis Khan

Up The Yangtze : A documentary about a tour boat on the Yangtze river, the Chinese workers and American tourists, and the changes brought by the Three Gorges dam.

Ratepayers Pay For Empty Buses

At yesterday's policy and resource planning committee, Cr Deaker, co-chairman of the Regional Council-Dunedin City Council passenger transport working party, said on the 1687 trips the Campus Buses had made in June, there had been a total 1846 passengers. That's not much more than one passenger per trip. This service is a waste of money and does nothing for the Environment which the Regional Council talks so much about.
The Campus Bus service should be closed down now.

Dunedin Centre Changes Uneconomic

Calvin Oates has over many years provided some of the best analyses of City Council affairs.
He has now turned his attention to the proposed Dunedin Centre upgrade. Up until now attention has been on the aesthetics of the project, but Calvin looks at the economics and finds that they don't stack up. It will interesting to see how the Council responses to this.

His ODT article is here

Momiji : New Japanese Restaurant

In the weekend we dined at Momiji, the new Japanese Restaurant in town.
We were very impressed: classy decor with Japanese prints on the wall, good service, and well-illustrated menu with lots of dishes that we would like to try. It will take many visits to tick them off our list.
Jizo has been a favorite of mine over many years, but it now has some competition. Jizo is more casual, Momiji more upmarket, so there is room for them both.

Momiji : 282 Moray Place, just up from Countdown 4770307
Licensed, No BYO

A Great Carisbrook Weekend

Great Weather.
Great Rugby.
Tell me again, what is so wrong with Carisbrook that hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars need to be spent on a new Stadium?

Starting A Blog

This site aims to encourage the reading and writing of blogs on the Affairs of our City.

If you would like your blog listed here, or know of other blogs which are not listed here, then please contact me : blogs@dunedinblog.co.nz

If you would like to blog under a dunedinBlog.co.nz address, i.e. "name.dunedinBlog.co.nz", then ask me about it. A Google Blogger blog can be setup this way by using custom domain settings. This is free, and you could also have a name@dunedinBlog.co.nz email address.

Suggest a Blog be Added to This Page

If you have a blog which you would like added to this blog list, or know of a blog which you think should be added, then please email:
blogs@dunedinBlog.co.nz

News Readers: the Best Way to Read Blogs

I use Google Reader. When you open your Reader, you will be informed of updates of blogs or sites which you are subscribed to. You can subscribe to a blog, or site, by clicking this symbol in the address bar of the site, or the rss or atom feed links.

ODT Supports Ecosanctuary

Congratulations on Allied Press (owners of the Otago Daily Times) for donating $100,000 to the Orokonui Ecosanctury.

Private Funding on Time Payment

A Dunedin City Council meeting heard yesterday that only 53% of private funding for the proposed Stadium is expected to be received before 2011, with the remaining funding not due until between that date and 2020. Cr Dave Cull said that the Council had said that it would not "hit the go button" on the stadium until 80% to 100% of the money had been raised. "We're not getting anywhere near that", he said.
Another "line in the sand" has been moved.

Not Looking Good For Stadium

The submissions to the Otago Regional Council have been 12 to 1 against funding the proposed new Carisbrook Stadium, reports the Otago Daily Times.
‘I’m not sure we can . . . ignore a 12 to one ratio, no matter what the long-term benefits may be’’ said Hearing panel member Cr Michael Deaker. His previous ‘‘fervent’’ support for the stadium was becoming ‘‘very wobbly indeed’’. Regional council chairman Stephen Cairns said there was a real possibility the council could say ‘‘no’’ to the funding.

Planting at Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Taking advantage of the wonderful weekend weather, I joined a group of volunteers in planting native trees and shrubs in the new Orokonui Ecosanctuary.
Now that the pest-proof fence has been completed, plants and birds can begin to thrive as they did in times long past.
In twenty years time, the Ecosanctuary will be a greater asset to the City than a Rugby Stadium ever will be. This with very little burden on the ratepayers.

Evidence Global Warming is Not Man-made

Atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer is Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia and former director of the US Weather Satellite Service.
In this article, he discusses evidence that Global Warming is due to natural causes, and is not man-made.

Carisbrook Stadium has many Hurdles yet

The new Carisbrook Stadium has many Hurdles yet, before building will start:

1. The Regional Council must approve its funding
2. The Carisbrook Stadium Trust must raise it's $45 million
3. The Dunedin City Council must find it's extra $20 million
4. A fixed price contract must be signed, giving a total cost of the project of less than $188 million

Even if the money is raised, it is hard to see any construction company risking such a deal.

What Global Warming?

Chris Trotter has called for "total war" against global warming, and insults those who wish to debate climate science by calling them "quislings".
What global warming? There has been no increase in global average temperature since the peak of 1998, and the very cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere has confirmed that this up-trend has ended.
Every month that goes by in which the 1998 peak is not exceeded brings the global warming theory into greater doubt. Some scientists are predicting that the world will suffer extremely cold temperatures over the next 30 years, based on the the current very low level of solar activity. They recommend an increase carbon-dioxide emissions to moderate this cooling.