The decision cannot be appealed.
In most cases in ISDS treaties, the Government loses and must pay huge fines.
So governments become very cautious in formulating legislation in, for example, labour, environment, health and safety, and taxation areas.
I don't think the Government is getting reliable legal advice. And the country will lose much of its sovereignty to multinational corporations as a result. I understand that Australia has been able to join the TPPII without an ISDS requirement. We need much more public discussion on these terms, as Canada is doing.
DONNA MUMMERY
Whanganui
No-cost idea
Your correspondent Peter Russell (November 15) accuses me of wanting to waste ratepayer money in his response to a suggestion I made in my recent guest editorial (offering new residents a rates holiday if they move to Whanganui and build a new home).
What Mr Russell fails to comprehend is that my suggestion does not actually cost WDC or ratepayers any money at all. How can you lose money you never had? It must be obvious to most people that an empty section will never bring in the same rates compared to a brand-new home on that empty section.
My suggestion would actually be a win/win for new residents, the WDC and for ratepayers. A rates holiday offers an economic incentive for those outside Whanganui to exit the rat race and to experience the wonderful lifestyle we have here in Whanganui.
This means more income for Whanganui.
To use a rugby analogy, I would humbly suggest to Mr Russell that he plays the ball and not the man. I'm always happy to argue any case on its merits, and perhaps be shown that my ideas are unworthy, but a personal attack on the proposer of an idea says more about the person doing the attacking than anything else. Personal attacks achieve nothing. They do not fix the problem we have in Whanganui — extremely high rates.
By expanding the rate base with new homes and new residents, this helps spread the rates burden, creates jobs and produces other economic benefits. In the long run it helps to reduce rates for people like Mr Russell who are quick to ridicule and rubbish new ideas that could improve our predicament, but who fail to offer any solutions of their own.
STEVE BARON
Whanganui
Question
I was intrigued by a comment in your report of the Gonville Domain parade of Christ the King in the Chronicle (October 30).
I quote from the article: "At the centre of the procession were the church's priests under a canopy, carrying a monstrance containing the consecrated host that Catholics believe is the body of Christ."
My question is this: Does this make Catholics cannibals when they indulge in Holy Communion?
PAUL EVANS
Whanganui
Funds spilled
The great statesman and artist Winston Churchill said: "Governments create nothing and have nothing to give but what they have first taken away — you may put money in the pockets of one set of Englishmen, but it will be money taken from the pockets of another set of Englishmen, and the greater part will be spilled on the way".
In Whanganui, the spillage has been repeatedly seen by local ratepayers, and there appears to be no relief in sight, despite hopes that a new elected council would see a more cautious and prudent approach to the use of ratepayer funds.
The Wanganui Ratepayers' Association has correctly observed the insidious deflection of rates towards what is essentially a rebuild of the Sarjeant Gallery.
This wonderful facility is probably one of the biggest con jobs of all time; where the art community who spend evenings in the gallery sipping wine and nibbling cheese have apparently convinced our council and central government to fund this nationally important gallery, which our tiny ratepayer base cannot possibly afford to sustain. The ratepayer association failed, however, to identify the nearly $2 million of rates used annually to fund the operation of the gallery, a sum that will surely increase.
No Whanganui politician ever, it seems, is going to stand strong, stop this spillage and reduce the financial burden that this unaffordable gallery has placed on our ratepayers, or put a halt to the subversive financial creep of public funds towards it. Never in the field of local government have so many given so much, for the benefit of so few.
BILL SIMMONS
Whanganui
Send your letters to: The Editor, Wanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Wanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
