OPINION: Hawke's Bay regional councillor sends wish list to Santa

Hawke's Bay regional councillor Martin Williams.

Dear Father Christmas.

I am not sure whether this is better sent by letter to you, or as a prayer to the Three Wise Men from years of old.

But as I look back at those Christmases past, those ahead and of the present, I do truly wonder what the future holds in store for us all, and have a few humble requests to make – for this country, for the world, for our children and theirs to come.

First, that peace would break out between the vaccinated and those who are not, across the tables of family and whanau throughout the land. That choices would be respected, lessons learned, with bread broken and carols shared together.

Second, that science would not be portrayed by some as a platform for either hoax or conspiracy, but instead accepted as a stringent discipline of logic which, by its very design, sets out to expose and reveal fallacy - literally, to disprove what is false, more than prove what is true.

Third, and in the same vein, for the sceptics to also accept that climate change is not an 'agenda'- whether United Nations, socialist or otherwise, but a clear and present human-induced serious threat to society and the world we inhabit.

On understanding that, for all people to empower our leaders to embrace the bold and courageous yet available means to solve the problem, as David Attenborough shares through his book A Life on This Planet.

Further, that everyone gets a copy of that book under their Christmas tree this year, and reads it before they get back to work in 2022!

Fifth, and as Mr Attenborough also pleads, that we will "rewild" our world with urgency, thereby building both resilience to climate change and slowing or reversing the most significant extinction event faced on earth since the end of the Permian 250 million years ago.

The staggering fact being that this particular mass extinction global biodiversity crisis has not been created by any external or natural force, but again through human hands, and not over eons or millennia, but instead centuries if not decades past.

Sixth, that for Hawke's Bay, our planned 'rewilding' of 10,000 then 100,000 hectares more of eroding hillslopes with the right mix of native, exotic hardwood and other forest trees over the years and decades ahead is embraced by farmers, to stem the six million tonnes of sediment that bleeds into our streams and rivers and the sea every year, while improving farmer balance sheets and yielding greater revenue resilience in the bargain.

Seventh, while hitting the pause button on Three Waters Feform, and as Mayors Walker and Hazlehurst have just tabled (so please put a big present under their tree!), that the Government reconsiders its previous refusal to embrace the Hawke's Bay regional solution, which would have both sustained local voice and delivered economies of scale for our smaller rural communities of Wairoa and Central Hawke's Bay.

Eighth, and instead of stripping away and centralising council assets, that Wellington wakes up to the urgent need for councils to be properly funded so that we can actually carry out the tasks left at the foot of our chimney at local scale, like reversing degrading water quality, restoring biodiversity, providing water security and delivering safe, effective and reliable transport, water and wastewater infrastructure, along with stormwater and flood protection networks which can survive the biblical-scale rain events which seem now to be an annual encounter.

I am sorry to have to say it, Santa, but rates alone are simply never going to cut it.

Ninth, and sorry to be the grinch that stole Christmas, but that the Government finally shows some steel, and either bans or heavily taxes sugary drinks and industrial-scale fast-food chains, to forestall the looming diabetes catastrophe, so that our health system might actually have some prospect of coping with the next pandemic to come!

Tenth, to reinstate the likes of the former Forest Service to foster the next generation of Barry Crump's crop of Good Keen Men, so we can reverse the recent explosion of feral deer, and realistically defeat introduced pests and predators as we strive to 2050; giving this generation of the young, energetic and fit something useful and constructive to do in the process. While I am at it, that we would reform our objectives for secondary and tertiary education to inspire and equip that same generation with the practical skills needed for Aotearoa to have any hope of bridging the chronic housing and infrastructure deficit in front of us, rather than pursuing endless bachelors of nothing, at the university of everywhere.

Eleventh, that every child in this land would have food in their stomachs and a warm roof over their head.

Twelfth, that our nation would discover the unique and truly rich wealth of knowledge and insights which Mātauranga Māori can provide, and see that the promise of the Treaty heralds hope, as we move past its role in resolving past grievance.

Sorry that this is such a long list and so demanding, but as the whakataukī says, E kapo ki ngā whetū (reach for the stars), and I believe we must.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Martin Williams is a Hawke's Bay Regional councillor