Star Trek Laser Tour

This programme begins with a presentation on the current night sky which includes an audio visual. This is followed by, weather permitting, a laser tour of the night sky. Available any evening by appointment. Times vary with sunset times.

Phone: (06) 377 1600

51 Ahiaruhe Road, Carterton www.stonehenge-aotearoa.co.nz sonville Lions Community Christmas Parade”.

In November 2020 the Parade was again re-branded as “The Johnsonville Charitable Trust Lions Christmas Parade” after the trust committed to funding grants for the years 2020 to 2022.

“For this parade to continue a wider community involvement would be needed to take responsibility for its organisation and management,” President

Garth says.

This Chinese Dragon dance brought North Wellington's multi-cultural identitiy to the fore at the 2022 Christmas Parade in Johnsonville. manage the parade on a ‘no hand-outs or give-aways’ basis, we are now required to have in place a rubbish management and sorting plan and activity”.

The Johnsonville Lions Club currently has 23 members and meets on two Monday evenings each month at the Johnsonville Club in Norman Lane. Lions clubs are a group of men and women who identify needs within the community and work together to fulfil those needs. For more information or to get involved with contact Stephen Cook at 972 2036 or email Johnsonville@lionsclubs.org.nz.

I recently hosted a meeting which included local property developers and representatives from the City and Regional Councils. The background for the meeting was the need to ensure all people involved in providing more housing in our electorate, whether it be those building them or those regulating and permitting that building, understand the issues which govern the ability to build the houses everyone agrees we need.

There are essentially two types of development; greenfields and brownfields. Greenfields means building on currently undeveloped land, typically ex farmland on the edges of current urban areas, where infrastructure like sewers, water supply and other essential services don’t exist are usually built by the developer.

Brownfields development means rebuilding on existing sites, and there has been considerable discussion in recent times around how much intensification should be allowed in existing suburbs, especially changing of height limits to allow for more apartments.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages; the Regional Council in particular see their role to prevent more

Last week was Budget week, where the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson outlines what Government will invest in, and how we will pay for it. Ideally, the same amount will go in as goes out, that’s called a balanced budget. This is where we will be back to in the 2025/2026 financial year. When events like COVID and Cyclone Gabrielle come along, which need money to keep people in jobs and alive, and with the floods to remediate the damage, obviously they are priorities. Also, with worldwide inflation impacting on New Zealand, we needed to provide relief for struggling families in particular. That’s where removal of the $5 prescription charge per item and the provision of paid childcare for two-year-olds will help, an extension to what 3 and 4 year-olds get now. Incidentally, both are opposed by National. There is also more investment in building public houses and for making homes warmer and more energy efficient. The main runoff and other material ending up in our harbours, especially the Porirua harbour in the case of development north of Johnsonville and Newlands. The Wellington City Council are concerned that the existing infrastructure cannot handle the pressure it comes under when new housing areas are developed. Existing infrastructure is aging and needs upgrading across our city, as evidenced by recent pipe failures. An advantage of intensification of existing areas means more people, therefore more ratepayers to pay for those upgrades. point is to not spend so much money it aggravates inflation, and this Budget won’t. It looks like the forecasted recession will be avoided, which is good for New Zealand. It’s a tough old job being the Minister of Finance, meeting people’s expectations while not aggravating inflation. He did well. So, while prices are still higher than we would all like, predictions are inflation will be back down below 3 % by the end of next year. It can’t come soon enough. Meanwhile in other Budget announcements, children under 12 will have free public transport, and those under 25s will pay halfprice. Getting the next generation into public transport habits is the goal, especially as we are finally seeing an end to the shortage of drivers which has disrupted public transport. There’s plenty to be optimistic about, although there are plenty of people with a vested interest in talking New Zealand down. We must govern for all New Zealanders, not just the ones at the top of the financial heap.

Developers of course need to make a profit, and wish to keep their compliance costs as low as possible. Many believe the Resource Management Act is too cumbersome. We as government for our part have undertaken to rewrite that act.

The feedback was good, but the success will be when there are sufficient affordable houses to meetdemand. That is certainly my goal as your MP.

That, and of course having a vibrant and functioning Johnsonville Shopping Centre we can all be proud of.

There’s plenty to be getting on with.