Folks, don’t forget it’ll be election year

There is a car embedded in the Oreti River north of the WintonWreys Bush State Highway 96 bridge.

It possibly ended up there on the evening of December 23 through the action of some people I noticed hooning around the gravel extraction area on the east bank of the river, at the end of the access road to it.

My sister observed the car in the river on December 24.

I understand that she phoned the Southland District Council, who advised her that she needed to contact Environment Southland.

This was proper of the district council, as riverbed issues are the responsibility of Environment Southland.

She phoned Environment Southland, who advised her it was a police matter and that they would pass the information along to them.

I understand that she was advised that any small amounts of oil or petrol leaking from the vehicle would be diluted in the river water within a short distance from the vehicle.

This evening the vehicle remained in the river, awaiting removal. Hopefully this will occur before higher flows occur, further embedding it, or the containment of pollutants fails.

The Oreti River is the source of Invercargill’s water supply, and to see a vehicle having been deliberately driven into it and then abandoned, has made me frustrated and angry.

I considered whether the Police should be advised of the hooning behaviour on the Monday evening; people roaring and skidding around in vehicles doing donuts and raising dust clouds, but I considered the only risk they posed was to themselves, they were offroad with their activity, away from others.

In future, when I observe such behaviour, as a result of a vehicle being abandoned in the river – Invercargill’s water supply – I shall feel it necessary to advise the Police.

My sister showed the photo she took of the vehicle in the river to those we dined with on Christmas Eve, some from Invercargill.

Several were aghast, especially after I noted that this was their water supply.

The Environment Southland representative may be correct – that any pollutants would be diluted in the river water downstream of the car.

But, as politicians should know, sometimes it isn’t the reality but how an issue appears that matters. This one doesn’t appear very good to me, especially knowing there will still be oil in the engine and possibly petrol in the tank.

While it is good that we have time at Christmas to enjoy with family and friends, emergency service professionals work through the period, as do many in the less critical industries such as retail.

Environmental issues and criminal behaviour do not cease for public holidays, and those people staffing organisations with responsibility for dealing with them must of necessity be available at such times.

I am sorry for the population of Invercargill, that some foolish people from the Winton area are so ignorant of why caring for the river matters, or that they are aware of that and just don’t care, that they are willing to compromise it for the rest of us.

It is beyond time that we all started to care more, and to deal effectively with those who don’t.

To those of you with authority and duty-of-care, I am angry. And 2020 is an election year.

Stephen Keach Winton

The big issues of the next decade are many and varied. New ones will appear in the 2020s but most will be carried over from the last decade. The difficulty and importance of these will intensify and how we respond will shape the decade.

I could have listed 20 big issues, many of which are inter-related. One missed from the top five is how we handle China. Scolding the increasingly intransigent global power over human rights abuses and unfair trade practices is increasingly difficult.

Some of the big issues in New Zealand over the next 10 years will be social changes. They tend to come slowly in New Zealand but when they do happen they tend to stick. Governments rarely turn the clock back. The next decade will see shifts many will find hard to stomach. The right to die and the legalisation of drugs will be top of the agenda.

My top five are as follows:

1. Climate change

No surprise there. Climate change and how the country negotiates the transition to a low or zero carbon economy while keeping people in jobs and the lights on will dominate the decade.

New Zealand can model good behaviour but the action will be overseas with the big polluting countries and also with developing countries that will produce another three or four billion people to be fed and housed. Unfortunately the time for gradual change and consensus has passed and more radical action is required. At a time of global power shifts and many other pressing issues, that is not going to happen and the climate will inevitably warm.

At the bottom of the world, New Zealand is in some ways in an enviable position. But as a trading nation our standard of living will be threatened like never before.

2. Low interest rates

The unprecedented low interest rates experienced in the last decade will carry on into the next decade.

Developed economies around the world, whether led by left or right governments, are set on huge borrowing to stimulate economies. Much of the money will be spent on building infrastructure.

Many finance ministers say it would irresponsible not to borrow with interests rates so low. Our coalition Government is poised for a $12 billion spend.

The dangers of borrowing seem to be forgotten. Interest rates could easily change and the money, presumably, has to be paid back. Or

3. Equality

No healthy society can tolerate huge differences between those at the bottom and top. That gap has steadily increased over the last decade and how it is addressed in the next is a fundamental issue.

Transferring resources to the bottom 20 per cent of the population requires careful handling. A couple of consequences need to be avoided. One is actually increasing that 20 per cent and the other is removing the reward for effort and sacrifice.

Compulsory charity is all very well but it is not sufficient motivation for excellence and high standards.

It’s said the rich will pay but they find ways of avoiding, if not evading, tax. The well-off, who already bear the brunt of taxation, will be the likely targets.

Many tax experts call for a tax on assets rather than income but New Zealanders hate that.

Equality also brings up generational equity and the funding of superannuation. Words like boomers and privilege have unhelpfully entered the debate. Are we in this together or not?

4. Immigration

Immigration, which has been used to artificially stimulate the economy for years, has resulted in a very diverse society, especially in the big cities.

New Zealand has become like Singapore, where migrants, often on short-term work visas, do the jobs we won’t or can’t do. At the same time a large class of beneficiaries, including superannuitants, do little.

High diversity also raises questions about national identity and acceptance, more importantly adherence, to the same sort of values. Some feel like strangers in their own land. As a country of immigrants, New Zealanders often have great tolerance, at least on the surface, but that will change.

5. Left and right

The next decade will determine whether the country maintains its tilt towards a Scandinavian, socialist type of government or heads towards a less reformist, lower tax and more individual responsibility regime.

In a country increasingly divided by education, location and tribe, alliances will harden. The reform agenda is set by a virtuous vanguard of leftie academics, reformist politicians, like-minded media columnists, career public servants and champagne socialist professionals.

Unfortunately they have no idea what ordinary people think and their shouty condemnation of other viewpoints only drives the common discourse underground.