Rather than being assisted we are being robbed!
It should be HB getting the $28b not Auckland. Put light rail in HB. A nice circle line from Napier to Hastings to Havelock North back to Napier via Clive. Stops at Taradale, EIT, the hospital, etc, as well. Sound extravagant?
That's what Auckland is getting and we are paying for it. If Auckland's transport infrastructure is so poor, let market forces do its work and let businesses, wealthy government departments, other organisations and people move out and rebalance the country. Spread the population and the wealth, don't encourage it in Auckland where it will require even more funding in the future.
Further it should be HB getting the new $35m TV channel too, to get some new technology organisations here, seeing how we are not allowed to try our hand at getting oil, to farm and probably in the near future to not even grow apples.
And we definitely could do with a new non-water logging stadium as well as $36m for economic development.
Where is HB's decent handout?
I guess we are not suddenly going to get a new handout, which is depressingly unfair. So how about a Regional Tax Rebate for Hawke's Bay instead? A rebate where a resident of Hawke's Bay gets a tax deduction to make it fair because everywhere else got big handouts. The new Regional Tax approach shows that regional taxes can be done, so simply do a reverse of that.
We aren't asking for much. In fact we aren't asking for anything. We are simply asking that we don't pay for everyone else's betterment only because the main centres have more MPs of the Government's liking in their areas, or their MPs want to be welcomed there when they retire (future proofing a freebie in the sun, for old time's sake).
Life in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Taranaki and the Pacific Islands is all going to improve because of our funding and the wealth of those populations is going to improve as a result, and good for them. But we want improvement too and as the Government cocks a snoop at Hawke's Bay and can't be bothered to give us anything other than an old cheap logging rail route then I say just pay us directly in the pocket by way of a rebate. It makes sense.
If a "Let's do this" regional rebate in fact can't be done for Hawke's Bay then start splashing out on things in Hawke's Bay before the cupboard is bare. For example in addition to light rail, hospitals, etc, the Government could pay for say, the sea wall at Clifton. Clifton is the lynch pin to Cape Kidnappers for the general population and it is imperative it is kept open.
It is great news that the HB Regional Council has granted funding for some emergency work, but the Government could and should step up and pay for that as well as forking out and securing the entire access frontage from the cafe to the boat ramp. Indeed the whole boating area could do with a nice tidy up.
The irony is that under this Government's bonus giving, nest-feathering exercise, rather than helping the comparatively economically deprived HB, the Government is robbing the poor of HB to pay for a better lifestyle for the rich of Auckland.
It's hardly the Robin Hood scenario the Government sold itself on. Just like bad King John, this Government is all about its castles and its kingdoms, in the bigger cities.
• John Thompson is a Hawke's Bay businessman
