Letters: Lessons learned from Goff's cost cutting

Phil Goff, here being sworn in as Auckland mayor by Auckland Council chief executive Stephen Town, is already cutting costs in Auckland. PHOTO/FILE

Even though he is a dyed-in-the-wool Labour politician, Auckland's mayor Goff is responding to the clamour from his ratepayers and residents.

He has reduced the size of his mayoral office and told the chief executive of Ateed (a CCO) that he is responsible to the ratepayers and doesn't have unlimited funds for silly projects like logo changes and slogans, boxing match sponsorship and extravagant promotional plans.

Goff has put all the other council-controlled organisations in Auckland on notice they are coming under his scrutiny and the culture of extravagance must stop.

He has also signalled that his pre-election promise of holding rates raises to no more than 2 per cent will be kept.

That would be nice (but unlikely) closer to home. Please can we invite Phil to be our mayor?

In saying that, I am constantly being surprised how much of Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers' policy seems to be now being adopted by our current council as "theirs".

I see repairs to some roads and footpaths, rural mowing and weed spraying being done, though long overdue. Water works repairs aren't taking weeks to fix and the Inner City Revitalisation has now spread district-wide.

Bringing it closer to home.

(Abridged)
ROSEMARYMACKENZIE
Rotorua

Population or immigration rates surging?

So Rotorua's population is surging and our economy is in great shape. I believe Rotorua stopped growing about 30 years ago when the forestry industry died.

The growth of less than 2000 can in my view be explained by the surge in the number of Indian "students" flocking to the local polytech - whatever they are called this week.

Our Indian friends are not coming here for the qualifications offered by a provincial tertiary institution, they are coming here to gain permanent residency so they can live and work in New Zealand.

Frankly, New Zealand does not need more taxi drivers, courier drivers, farm or hospitality workers. My immigration policy is very simple: Does New Zealand need you?

Then welcome. Do you need New Zealand? Then bugger off. And it should be five years to gain permanent residency, two years is a joke.

The Rotorua district has just over 70,000 residents, this includes more than 7000 "jobseekers". This is not a sign of a good economy. Neither is the plethora of beggars that haunt the CBD and the suburban shopping centres.

The fact of the matter is all the growth in the BOP is concentrated in Tauranga - a city that has just over taken Dunedin as our fifth largest city. No amount of feel-good stories in the local media can conceal the fact that Rotorua is an economic wasteland.
C.C MCDOWALL
Rotorua