The social challenges our region faces

Fostering increased community capacity across the board has been, and continues to be, my focus as Gore District Mayor. I am always fascinated by the tracks this desire sometimes leads me down. Much of the community interest and focus rightly so rests with the large capital investment projects we need to maintain and enhance community infrastructure such as water, refuse and roads.

However, I find some of the more demanding tasks revolve around the social challenges we face in our communities and which are replicated across the nation to one degree or another.

The scourge that is methamphetamine in our province is capturing more of the headlines and unfortunately more individuals. There are no communities immune. While some may choose to turn a blind eye to the debilitating effect meth is having, we simply can’t ignore the destruction it wreaks both individually and corporately.

I guess there are a multitude of reasons behind the decisions individuals make to indulge, however, more often than not it’s the families and communities around the person that ultimately pay the price.

The headlines would have you believe this is an activity largely confined to individuals and groups who choose to opt out of the normal structures of society, whatever that may mean. However the evidence tells a different story. Individuals from across the entire spectrum of society succumb to the temptations on offer.

Law enforcement, in my view, is a vitally important part of the community response. That said we need to realise the Police simply don’t have the resources to deal with the challenge by themselves.

In my mind a community-wide approach involving Police, the health sector, NGOs, education, local government and Government social agencies is the only sensible and sustainable response.

For some time now an organisation called Safe in the South has been operating in this space and doing some good work behind the scenes. This week the Gore District Council agreed to partner Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council in the Safe in the South initiative.

Even as I write this column, there are people turning their minds as to how best that collaborative response can operate in Eastern Southland.

The Gore District has a strong history of collaboration via a multi-agency approach across the whole social sector scene. So, with that in mind I am optimistic we, as a community, can gain a better understanding of the dynamics at play with the availability and supply of methamphetamine in the region and the drivers behind the use of it, and then develop an effective response.

There are no silver bullet solutions on offer that I am aware of. There’s every chance each individual community may well require an individually tailored response.

This week’s high profile publicity has squarely pointed the finger at one of the ‘‘Gangs’’ operating in the south as a key player in the meth problem. While this may well generate ratings and sales for the news entity, it does very little to help generate a solution. I guess that’s not the news agency’s role though, is it.

What I can say is that from the publicity a positive connection between myself and the gang in question has occurred. I guess this has at least opened a door previously closed, and for that I thank the individuals concerned.

One of the real bonuses of being Mayor is that I get to see both the good and the not so good sides of community life. If this has taught me one thing it’s never make assumptions without the benefit of first-hand information otherwise you could end up being steered down some blind alleys.

Challenges aside, one of the highlights on the council calendar for me is fast approaching. I am talking, of course, about the Gore District Community Awards on October 26. This is always a great night, more so this year given the guest speaker is Dunedin entrepreneur Ian Taylor.

Always a sell-out event, make sure you get your tickets early. They go on sale on Monday, October 1.

Tracy Hicks is Gore District Mayor I enjoyed reading the Suffrage feature in The Southland Times.

It was important for me as the first elected female MP for Invercargill to be in the electorate on this special day to help celebrate our local women, of now and back then.

I was encouraged by the amazing women of all ages I met at the various events I attended. From women in the emergency services to our future leaders at Southland Girls High School – we should all be so proud of how well our region is represented by women.

On behalf of the community I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to women (and men) in Southland who are advocating for women and women’s rights.

There is still work to be done to gain true equality but we must celebrate our successes achieved and how women have positively shaped our way of life here in Southland.

I’m very proud to be a Southlander and very proud to be a Southland woman.

Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie

Reviewing the accounts

The heading on the published annual accounts of the Community Trust of Southland ‘‘Grants Approved 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018’’ is, clearly, incorrect, when the grants listed include over $5 million of grants approved in the previous year (although not yet paid out) but, also, clearly, therefore, listed in that year’s annual accounts.

Did the grants approved for the year ended March 31, 2017, need to be listed again in the accounts for the year ended March 31, 2018.

Surely, if they wanted to list them again then they should have been listed as ‘‘Grants Approved 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 and not yet Paid Out’’?

An explanation as to why only $700,000 of the grants approved in the annual accounts for the year ended March 31, 2017, was paid out by March 31, 2018 would also be welcomed.

Clearly the trustees have a basic responsibility to preserve the trust’s capital for future generations and that will mean that, some years, grants approved will need to be restricted, and this is probably why the trustees judged that this needed to happen this year, but, they also, in my opinion, need to be open with the Southland community.

The list of ‘‘Grants Approved 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018’’ according to my calculations, have been ‘‘prudently (?)’’ limited to $1,179,390 ($6,389,800 – $5,210,410) and this is the list that the Southland public was entitled to see listed separately. Please be ‘‘open’’ with your Southland community, in future, trustees. Neil Wyeth

Reply: Margot Hishon, chair, Community Trust of Southland

The listing of ‘‘Grants Approved 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018’’ provides an accurate list of the grants approved during this period, it does not list any grants approved in prior years. As is the case each year we have some grants which have been approved in prior years which are withdrawn or repaid to us for a variety of reasons. During the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 this amounted to $5,210,410, included in this amount was a write back of a $4,854,328 grant approved in April 2010 to Southland Museum and Art Gallery. In line with appropriate accounting procedure grants are written back when projects do not proceed as planned and this information is openly reflected in the detail provided with the list of grants approved.

Total grants paid out from 1 April 2017 to March 2018 totalled $8,142,000, which relates to some grants approved for the year ended 31 March 2018 and some from earlier years. Grants are paid when the conditions for the grant are met. All of this information is openly disclosed in the full financial statements, which are readily available on our website.

For this current year ending 31 March 2019 the Trust has budgeted an additional $1.5 million towards a Major Grants Round, in addition to the $6.5 million budget for other grants. The trust has also agreed a further $1.5 million for a Major Grants Round for the year ending 31 March 2020 as it continues to support the community.