Elections: Time for a change, or not
A general election is always big news, but big changes in Manawatu seem unlikely.
The National Party candidate for Palmerston North is yet to be announced, with social media chat suggesting they may come from outside the city. Whoever it is will have to run a strong campaign to unseat Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-galloway.
Lees-galloway will, however, be wanting to turn around his party’s performance in the electorate – National has trounced Labour in Palmerston North the past two elections.
Meanwhile, National MPS Nathan Guy and Ian Mckelvie would be considered shoo-ins in their rural electorates.
But it will still be an interesting race. Will the Green Party stand a candidate in Palmerston North, or will they stay out of Lees-galloway’s way as part of the Labour-greens agreement to work together in an effort to topple the National-led government?
How Palmerston North-based New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball polls will also be interesting.
While gaining a good chunk of the party vote may help his party move into the kingmaker position for forming the next government, the one-term politician will no doubt want to improve on his third-place finish last election.
Water, water everywhere
Remember that time environment minister Nick Smith swam in the Manawatu River in 2016 to highlight work to clean it up?
You possibly wish you could wipe it from your mind.
Water quality will continue to pop up in the news throughout the year, as various groups take steps to reverse damage to local waterways.
Tararua’s mayor Tracey Collis has pledged to focus on the district’s water – a promise that will no doubt be welcomed, especially after E coli was found in Pahiatua’s water supply in 2016.
Meanwhile, almost all water in the wider Manawatu region could be fluoridated in the next two years if a law change, putting the decision in the hands of district health boards instead of councils, goes ahead.
Palmerston North has fluoride in its water, but Horowhenua, Tararua and the Manawatu District Council regions, excluding Feilding, do not.
Rangitaane o Manawatu will also hope to use the new Manawatu River advisory board, set up as part of their Treaty of Waitangi settlement, to improve the river’s quality.
Work to clean up Lake Horowhenua should get underway. Anyone who plays sport at nearby Donnelly Park will be thankful, as the stench from the lake
might go away.
One plan legal punch-ups continue
It seems 10 years was not long enough to sort legal issues about one of Manawatu’s most important documents. Fish and Game and the Environmental Defence Society will face off against Horizons Regional Council in the Environment Court, with the two groups accusing the council was not doing enough to enforce the One Plan. The One Plan manages the Manawatu-whanganui region’s quality of freshwater, air and land. It particularly affects those making discharges, such as district council sewage plants, or the amount of sediment and nitrogen that enters a waterway from a farm.
The groups say Horizons is not implementing the plan correctly, especially when dealing with resource consents for intensive farming and dairy conversions.
But the council and farmers say putting the plan in place takes time and the court action could put farmers’ livelihoods at risk.
It took more 10 years of wrangling both in an out of court before the plan was signed off in 2014. Farmers, environmentalists and the council will hope this fight is over much faster.
Jets prepare to retake the court
Financial problems continue to keep Manawatu’s top basketball team out of the National Basketball League.
The Jets grounded its team at the end of 2015, when debt and reduced funding caught up with the club.
The original plan was to rejoin the league in 2017 after overhauling the business model, but the Jets are sitting out for another year.
The Jets are not commenting, but Basketball NZ said it told the team wishes to apply to rejoin in 2018.
Basketball NZ understands debt is being paid down, but the Jets have posted decently-sized losses the past two years and have total negative equity of $206,944.
Iwi investment incoming
Twenty-five years of work by Rangitaane o Manawatu culminated with its Treaty of Waitangi settlement passing into law in December.
But a new phase of work has only just begun for the iwi. While implementing its cultural arm will be important for its members, it is the $13.5 million in financial redress it was granted that will have a real effect in Manawatu.
Although it is a small settlement, that much money can still drive important economic projects in the region.
Those in charge of using the money to grow Rangitaane o Manawatu have been speaking to others who made their settlements earlier, gleaning advice on how to best use it.
But if comments from lead negotiator Danielle Harris when the settlement was signed are anything to go by, Manawatu could see much of the money invested locally.
‘‘We have resided in the Manawatu since the 1600s and we will be here for eternity. We are fully committed to growing our region.’’
Council cracks will heal or grow
The Horowhenua District Council probably made more national headlines in the last two months of 2016 than it had in the past few years.
A mayor who refused to enter the council building, suggestions moving a cenotaph 10 metres would cause civil unrest, residents saying they felt threatened when they posted support for new mayor Michael Feyen online – it was a hell of a way for Feyen to start his reign.
But it was the move by a group of councillors to roll Feyen’s choice for deputy mayor, Ross Campbell, that highlighted the divisions in the council chamber.
Feyen and Campbell spent much of the last term as outsiders, butting heads against then-mayor Brendan Duffy and the rest of the councillors.
Now Feyen is in the driver’s seat. He has to deal with a council that rolled his choice of deputy mayor for their preferred option, Wayne Bishop.
It will be an ugly three years if Feyen and the councillors who ousted Campbell cannot find a way to work together in a civil manner.
A new dawn for artistic endeavours
Musicians and thespians will be keeping a close eye on how two Manawatu institutions function next year.
Jeff Kingsford-brown left his job as artistic director of Centrepoint Theatre at the end of 2016, with the country’s only professional provincial theatre in good shape on the artistic front. But Centrepoint will continue in its struggle to get enough funding to cover costs, with the amount of cash its gets from Creative New Zealand reducing almost every year. Meanwhile, the Creative Sounds Society – the organisation behind music studio, practice space and venue The Stomach – will be hoping to put a turbulent year behind it. A special general meeting of the society held in June attracted a massive turnout, with the organiser saying it was probably the biggest turnout for a democratic event he had seen outside of an election. Some members felt problems were sorted, but others still feel like they are on the outer. The society committee will hope the only rumbles they feel in 2017 are made by instruments. Meanwhile, the new duo running The Stomach, manager Harry Lilley and sound engineer Nigel Mauchline, will no doubt be kept busy by the ever-increasing number of people wanting to take advantage of the value-for-money services they provide.