Tribute to prolific letter writer

I can hardly think of a better way to pay public tribute to the life of John T Marshall than to write a letter to the Editor of the Waikato Times.

John Marshall, himself, must have been one of the most prolific letter writers in the history of this newspaper.

He has been a regular correspondent for around fifty years.

As a member of the Labour Party, John consistently wrote to the paper about social inequities and shared his opinions on political policies which he considered to be unjust and unfair. John had a reputation for being both loyal and outspoken in the Labour Party but was also well known to the Opposition for his sharp criticism.

A former Londoner, John made his home in New Zealand, and through his life and example worked to make this country a better place for his family and for us all.

Go in peace, John. Donna Miles-Mojab came out swinging with her opinion piece of August 6 which included the demonising of Fox News and one of its hosts, Laura Ingraham; the President of the United States also got a mention; I forget his name. Miles-Mojab said that they have ‘‘played a strong role in strengthening the alt-right and spreading xenophobic resentment in the US’’.

In her hit piece she omitted an inconvenient fact that Ingraham is the mother of children adopted from abroad, one from Guatemala, and, believe it or not, the child isn’t even white. But let’s not let that get in the way of a good story.

I bet Miles-Mojab could, at a heartbeat, put a negative spin on the adoptions.

I’m counting on her doing so. There was no place in the consultation document for the 2018-28 10-Year Plan to vote for doubling of debt and $2b infrastructure spending on expansion.

In fact responses to the consultation were overwhelmingly for debt reduction, limits on rate increases, no UAGC and no spending on ‘‘nice to haves’’.

Ratepayers expect council to conduct its business in an open, transparent, and democratically accountable manner [LGA Section 14 (1) (i)]. Informing about decisions already made is not consultation.

Forecast Financial Statements (p85) in the 10-Year Plan show total liabilities of

$892m in 2023 and $891m in 2028. There is no evidence of ‘‘different avenues’’ to repay debt because, after leaving out vested interests, rates provide

70 per cent of total income in 2017/18 and in 2027/28. Predicted developer contributions of $313m do not even cover finance/interest costs of $360m.

The interest-free HIF loan is not ‘‘interest-free’’ to ratepayers because 15 per cent GST is added to rate invoices. To pay off debt of $760m council need to collect $874m ($12,000/ratepayer) and pay

$114m in GST to the Government. Growth and vibrancy will not bring well-being to those on low incomes who cannot afford the rates that pay for it. I note in the of August 15, Minister Jones is hesitant to confirm funding for the proposed Momentum theatre project.

It seems the project, which clearly has lost momentum, is dependent on this government grant.

In the council agenda of the July 28, 2016, item 43 contains these words.

‘‘The refurbish option (of the Founders Theatre) is the most cost effective action.’’ And later, ‘‘The refurbish option will result in minimal downtime for theatre users’’.

Given the cost estimated to build the new facility is $75m and given that no set cost building contract has been issued and allowing that building costs conservatively may have risen at least ten per cent per year since 2016, would the soon to be ex Mayor King like to tell us what the estimated real cost build is for the Momentum project, how much has it increased since 2016, how will the ratepayers of Hamilton be exposed in increase rates to the new build cost?

Mayor King may also want to tell us what costs are currently being incurred in, presumably, not maintaining or actioning any use for the Founders Theatre?

The other mayoral candidates may wish to comment also. This Momentum project is looking awfully like a folly of multi-million dollar proportions and it may not be too late to fix Founders and bring it up to international theatre standards.

After all, Founders has good parking readily available. Momentum has done a fantastic job raising funds for the new regional theatre. I am not concerned that the theatre funding wasn’t announced when Minister Jones was in Hamilton recently.

Like any multi-million dollar proposal, I would expect the minister and the Providential Growth Fund (PGF) to undertake extensive due diligence. Does Australia not have ‘anti-hate’ legislation? If so why isn’t it applied to Alan Jones?

His recent comments on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern surely qualify as such.

Whoever Alan Jones is he must surely be the finest example of the Ocker jock – but also a ‘‘a very sad joke and an utter lightweight’’ to use his words.

There used to be a term to describe many USA personalities abroad as ‘‘the Ugly American’’.

It looks as though some Australians in the media and politic fields have now assumed that title – the Ugly Australian.

A terrible shame as it does a great disservice to my many fine Australian friends and family.