Connectivity main focus at

Principal of Golden Bay High School, Linda Tame, is satisfied with the school agenda for 2023. Together with head student Hinewai Lewis, she shared news of some upcoming activities.

Connectivity is the main focus this year, after three years of challenging ups and downs with covid outbreaks. According to Linda, the students have some good ideas about how to reconnect.

“Students are at the heart of what the school’s all about and we’re really lucky to have great senior students, it’s great for their voice to be heard,” said Linda. “My goal is – as well as students doing well academically – I want as many students as possible to feel connected, and that means in a variety of ways.”

According to Linda, if students are well connected, there is a much higher rate of success. This year’s head students, Hinewai Lewis and Malakai Thorpe (who was absent at the time of interview), plan to build on bringing students together through lunchtime activities such as board games.

“We’re wanting to incorporate more of a push for the arts and more games like scrabble and chess… We’re keeping the key sports but wanting the other things to shine through, so more students can be involved,” said Hinewai.

She acknowledged the potentially anxiety-inducing competitive side of sports, that can be intimidating for those who aren’t athletically inclined.

“We really want to encourage connection between us and the wider school, encouraging others to step up, etc… through activities, etc.”

This year the student executive consists of Malakai, Hinewai, Rosie Brown, Kiki Dixon, Jodi Jefferson and Molly O’Connor. Their role is to work on improving the school culture by giving a voice to students and liaising with staff.

Meetings are held every Monday lunchtime and are run by teacher Dom Hammond. Hinewai and Malakai also meet weekly with Linda.

“As well as being a group of people that run fun activities for the students, they’re also a group who can raise issues about things that need to be done,” said Linda.

Hinewai has already noticed that other Year 13 students are approaching the student executive with their concerns and ideas.

“We’re a bigger year [group] than last year and I really think we’re stepping up.”

Currently, 10 Year 13 students are involved in a peer mentoring programme for Year 7 and 8 students who may need extra help, or those who need extending in Maths or English.

Further fun events coming up include a house activities afternoon, which has undergone a change in the way it runs as a result of feedback from the students. There are regular Year 13 versus staff challenges throughout the year, and Lip Sync reigns as a highlight on the school calendar.

Already a mufti day has been held for cyclone-stricken Wairoa College, raising a whopping $1,529, which Linda deemed “a feel-good for everybody”.

GBHS has just one new teacher; replacing Margie Little and teaching Māori part-time, Elli Yates was welcomed at a mihi whakatau in week one.

As the rebuild continues, Linda finds the resilience of the students amazing. Currently the hall is opened up completely on one side, meaning there are no school assemblies as yet. It is due to be finished at the end of term one.

Ready to embrace any challenges 2023 may have in store, both principal and head student are set to hold the focus of connectivity and education, whilst having fun.

“The fun things have slipped away, so that’s what we want to do,” said Linda.

Road naming policy and process

Re the discussion at the recent GB Community Board meeting about our right-of-way naming rights (GBW, 24/2).

First up, we’d like to sincerely apologise if our proposal for naming our private right-of-way Bifrost Rise, which was accepted by the Tasman District Council (TDC) early December last year, has caused any consternation and confusion to the community board. We made sure we followed all due processes as laid out by the TDC street naming policy. We didn’t think we had to consult Manawhenua ki Mohua as it was not a te reo name, but realise now that it would have been encouraged. Apologies to our local iwi for that oversight.

However, seeing it is a private road, we have paid our dues and followed due process, and have now lived for over three months without a valid address (as TDC has now rescinded/ halted the acceptance of our road name due to the Community Board’s refusal to sign off on it at its last meeting), we really hope that the issue can be resolved quickly. The name of this road has a lot of meaning to us, our location and infrastructure (our driveway is like the fabled rainbow bridge thanks to the beautiful Mohua quartz), as well as our plans to develop it into an eco-community with a Viking Longhouse as our community gathering place. We would really appreciate it if the Community Board could grant us this right so we can finally have an official address for our residence and businesses.

Dr Sea Rotmann and Karl Weber Food Bank and Community Chest Kia ora koutou.

I am writing to again thank this amazing community for all the contributions made to the Food Bank and Community Chest, this makes such a difference to the lives of many in Golden Bay.

We now follow national guidelines and try to fill a food box with four days’ food and three meals, including fresh produce, for each member of the whānau. This is aimed at relieving some pressure on households and ensuring nutritional needs are met while bills are paid.

Meeting the minimum nutrition standards for food parcels is difficult – we often need more vegetables and fruit – fresh, frozen, or tinned.

It is worth noting though, that with still four months left to go until the end of our financial year – we have already given out 656 food parcels – which is more than for the whole of our 2022 financial year (646). The number of superannuants has doubled this year to date. Most food bank users are single people on a jobseeker or supported living benefit. Also the number of employed people needing food parcels has grown significantly.

Contributions can be dropped off at Mohua Social Services, the FreshChoice food bank bin or financial donations can be put into our account, reference either Food Bank or Community Chest: The Mohua Social Services Charitable Trust 38-90180626643-00. Receipts can be provided if requested.

We are so grateful for the way this community supports the work we do, it really helps us be creative with the way we can help people and fill gaps that government agencies can’t meet and please know every bit, however small, will make a difference.

Ehara taku toa i te toa taki tahi, engari he toa takitini.

Our achievements are not ours alone but those of a community.

Premal Gauntlett, service manager, Mohua Social Services Cancer part III – really?!

Sick is being tossed from the Ministry of Health to the screening department and back without any true satisfactory answer. I asked Pacific Radiology: “If I get a GP referral for a breast ultrasound can I have it for free, as all New Zealand citizens, which I am?”

“Not necessarily,” says the boss there. “There has to be certain protocol to be followed...” Oh great! I love protocols! “Can I please have a look at it?” I asked. “Well,” he said, “I don’t have it with me right now but your GP would know it”. OK at this point, I thought, I could do it directly and pay for it, or have the referral and pay the GP – a cheaper option. I call the medical centre here in Tākaka and they guarantee me over the phone, and even in an email, that the screening would be free if I went to see them. So I did, and I ask a GP, “So what is this protocol?” “I have no idea,” was his answer. He writes a referral. Pacific Radiology rings me to say that they had the GP referral, but I still had to pay before the ultrasound. I asked why so, and they answered me because this was a pre-existing case.

Maybe a more direct and honest answer would have been: “We want to punish you for pursuing an alternative therapy.”

A pre-existing cancer – go figure.

A vote for PV, not STV explanation of Single Transferable Voting occasionally employed.

Further to that, over the ditch in Orstralya they call it Preferential Voting which pretty much cuts to the chase. I don’t believe it’s ever been referred to as PV either.

Personally I prefer the Preferential Voting system. As I said many years ago in a Letter to the Editor, “If the Aussies can understand it surely Kiwis can”.

Community Board rules those selling NZ produce to far-off lands.

Kudos to Sollys

Bruce Collings

Kudos to the great crew at Sollys for a brilliant repair of the Birds Hill slip. The planning and execution actually took into consideration we the public! Like real people in the traffic lights reducing wait time and many other fine points well appreciated.

Guiliana Morani

If people would stop using initialisms and start using real words, there may be a better understanding of, or at least an interest in, the issue.

I’ve noted that it’s usually the initials used with the

Dave Myall

I agree wholeheartedly with the contents of Reg Turner’s last two letters (GBW, 17/2 and 24/2), and would like a public explanation from Abbie Langford as to the reason why she believes that anything discussed by the Community Board is confidential – or did she simply trot out a pre-prepared comment from the “How to obfuscate 101” publication so loved by Tasman District Council? Abbie, give us examples of what you believe are Community Board confidential discussion items.

As far as criticism of our elected representatives goes, it is clear that any discussion that they don’t agree with will be construed as criticism – and banned.

I would also like to know why we are still paying for the Mapua rehabilitation, when it was completed in 2008. The excuse given by Council is that the levy will continue until they sell the property – which isn’t ever going to happen because it is now a park.

Gary Thorpe

Response from GBCB chair Abbie Langford:

Committee, board and council meetings are generally open to the public. A “principle of openness” applies to local authority meetings and the decisions made at those meetings. This means that, generally:

• Meetings are open to the public to attend.

• Reports presented to the meetings are available for public inspection before, during and after meetings.

• Decisions made at meetings are recorded in the minutes and are available to the public.

However, it is possible for reports and meetings to be confidential in certain specified circumstances, including privacy matters, commercial sensitivity and potential court actions. The Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) sets out the reasons that a report or meeting can be confidential.

Even if there is a good reason for the meeting not to be open, council and community boards are required to consider if the public interest in an item outweighs the reasons for withholding a report. If it does, then the report should not be considered as confidential/be made publicly available.

Rules relating to public access to meetings and related information are set out in legislation under the LGOIMA and in Council’s/Community Board’s Standing Orders.

Even if the public are excluded from part of the meeting, the material or final decision may be released at a later date in line with the Council’s/Community Board’s Standing Orders. Response on Mapua rehabilitation from TDC: The council initially resolved to sell the remediated site to offset and repay overall and loan costs. Council then made the decision to put a hold on the sale of the land in March 2016, pending the Masterplan process.

The future of the land is expected to be considered through the Mapua Masterplan process as to how it can best be used to benefit the wider Tasman community.

Global Food Security Index

The Global Food Security Index (GFSI) was developed by Economist Impact and Corteva Agriscience. 113 countries participated in this evaluation, New Zealand ranked 14th. Given that we produce food for 40 million global consumers it seems odd that, in terms of food security, we are only 14th out of 113 nations.

The issue seems to be resilience in terms of “availability” and given recent events in the north, there is considerable room for improvement. “Availability” is one of four “pillars” assessed to create a GFSI for a country and within this category, assessments are made for “food security or policy commitments”, “food strategy” and whether a country has a “food security agency”.

The average scores, for all 113 countries, in the “availability” category, was 47.1 for “food security or policy commitments” where NZ scored 0, yes that’s right, zero. “Food strategy” had an average score of 60.2 and here NZ scored, yes, you’ve guessed, zero again. To round off our duck, we scored zero for having no food security agency, where the average was 32.7, meaning that one-third of the countries examined had such a government agency.

In the year ending June 2022 NZ exported more than $50 billion of food and fibre products. Perhaps it’s time for consideration to be given to creating food security for those resident here, rather than concentrating on making money for

Thumbs up for Pugh’s views

Bruce Dooley

Ninety-six per cent of scientists believe in human-induced climate change? No they don’t! This figure stems from a 2013 paper (Cook et Al), reviewing the abstracts (not full text) of 12,000 papers on climate change and global warming back to 1991. Just 32.6% of these papers endorsed anthropogenic global warming (AGW). The study’s research into these papers via canvassing the authors, resulted in 64.5% of authors expressing a position on AGW. Of these 97.2% endorsed AGW. The science wasn’t reviewed. The conclusions, quite rightly, have been continually challenged, but when something suits the narrative, it tends to become tablets of stone.

It isn’t true that only a few skeptics and “conspiracy theorists” question the “narrative”. One example is the 31,500 US scientists who signed a petition refuting the notion of catastrophic impact of human-induced climate change and the notion of a settled science and consensus on the matter.

Red flags abound the narrative. Truth will stand scrutiny, lies often don’t. With the survival of humanity at stake, you would think that the doors of debate, alternative theories and scientific discourse must be wide open, instead they are slammed shut.

Scientific progress relies on continual questioning. The hypothesis of best fit is relied upon to move forward, until a more fitting hypothesis presents itself.

It is important for us to distinguish between knowing something to be true as opposed to believing something to be true and also between facts and hypothesis.

Thumbs up to Maureen Pugh for expressing her views on the matter.

Louise Coleman

Letters To The Editor

The GB Weekly welcomes letters to the editor. Please email your letter to us at admin@gbweekly.co.nz by 12pm Tuesday. Include the writer’s full name, home address and daytime phone number. Letters will be printed over the name of the writer; names are withheld only when compelling reasons can be established. Letters must not exceed 250 words. Letters that are too long will not be considered. All correspondence is at the discretion of the manager, who reserves the right to decline, edit, or abridge letters without explanation or further discussion. Links to third party websites will not be published. The views expressed are those of the correspondents and are not necessarily endorsed or shared by The GB Weekly.

Correction

IN last week’s article about Collingwood Area School we referred to a “poroaki” instead of the more appropriate “poroporoaki”. This is the editor’s error and we apologise for any confusion.

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