Press Release 14.11.11
Dr Peter Cleave, Mana, Rangitikei today took exception to the comments made by John Banks, Act candidate for Epsom currently circulating on the internet. Banks talks about Maori and Polynesian people on the dole at home watching pornography and planning burglaries.
‘Why do we have to put up with this sort of nonsense?’ asked Dr Cleave in an internet posting today. ’This is outrageous behaviour. Not only is the New Zealand public having to watch an abuse of MMP as they are seeing with Act and National in Epsom with the patently false standing of a National candidate there, we have a former Mayor of Auckland making an awful spectacle of himself.’
Dr Cleave wondered why this kind of comment was not being censured by the Race Relations Office.
‘Banks would not get away with this in some other countries,’ he said. ‘Why are we putting up with this kind of silliness here? New Zealand used to be known as a place of fair play and balance. Here we have an established politician making a prat of himself in a gerrymandered electorate and being endorsed by the Prime Minister over a cup of tea! How could our image possibly be further tarnished?’
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Press Release 13.11.11 Dr Peter Cleave, Mana, Rangitikei
Press Release 13.11.11Draft Press Release 13.11.11
Drifting into two kinds of debt and more.
Dr Peter Cleave, Mana, Rangitikei said today that there were two major kinds of debt for constituents in the Rangitikei electorate to beware of. The first of these is the ETS. Unsuspecting taxpayers will foot the bill while corporates slide out of their commitments. At this stage we will overshoot our commitment to Kyoto. Who will pay?
Dr Cleave set out the broad strokes of the present ETS position for Aotearoa-New Zealand;
• NZ is expected to overshoot its Kyoto target by 18%
• The ETS pays for less than 20% of the resulting liability
• The Government is borrowing forest credits to cover the gap and when this is properly accounted for, NZ is today 49 megatonnes in deficit – a multibillion dollar liability, the scale of which depends on future carbon prices.
‘As if this is not bad enough there is a catch,’ said Dr Cleave. He then set out the way this forty nine megatonne deficit could drift into escalating debt depending on carbon prices. This total position of a 49 megatonne deficit is worth:
• $1 billion at the $20.33/tonne carbon price used in the Budget;
• $2.45 billion at the $50/tonne figure the government uses for modeling after 2012 (when the credits seem much more likely to be purchased); and
• $5 billion if carbon prices rise to $100/tonne.
‘We cannot afford to sit with our heads in the sand denying the science of global warming and calling the ETS ‘a big con’ as Ian McKelvie is doing,’ said Dr Cleave. ‘And just as the Occupy protesters are telling us about the way financial markets have been corrupted we need to be wary of the same thing happening with the carbon market. It would be tragic if corporates manipulated this so that poor and working folk bore the burden of ETS overshoots.’
The second kind of debt is illustrated in a recent letter to the Manawatu Standard by Peter Wheeler (12.11.11). This involves Manfeild;
‘Manawatu District Mayor and National candidate for Rangitikei does it again, firstly he bails out the Manfeild Park Trust using rate payers money by buying back land gifted to the trust. Beat that for stupidity. Then he plans to sell off large chunks of district council land to the PNCC to get his council out of hock. And now he thinks that the National Parties policy on the Emissions Trading Scheme is a load of rubbish. What next, a subsidy to dairy farmers to continue polluting our rivers and land. He is already being subsidised for doing just that [polluting our rivers].
Even after this erratic and irrational behaviour the Manawatu Standard’s Grant Miller attempts to paint McKelvie as some sort of hero. We all know the National Party could nominate any farm animal as its candidate for Rangitikei and still win the seat but these days I'm sure even dairy farmers are looking for forward
looking leaders who accept that climate change is a fact and that farming or continuing to pollute our rivers needs serious consideration.
Finally and using the now infamous words of his [McKelvie's] party leader Key,
"Just show us the money" Ian. You couldn't do it for Manfeild; you couldn't do it for your council, so we must presume that you can't do it for the ETS.’
‘I support what Peter Wheeler is saying in his letter,’ said Dr Cleave. ‘We cannot afford to drift into debt this way.’
‘There is more,’ said Dr Cleave ‘There is a culture of aimless drift in the Manawatu at the municipal and the parliamentary representative levels. A major case has drifted in and out of court recently between Horizons and the Palmerston North City Council with one accusing the other of non- compliance regarding pollution. Aside from lawyers’ fees there is mention of a $600,000 fine. I have called for the Auditor General to look at this wastage of ratepayers and taxpayers money,’ said Dr Cleave. ’These things should not be getting to court, there should be proper systems whereby one council monitors another without wasting money on lawyers and fines.’
Dr Cleave noted that many locals are upset.
‘The unconscious drifting into debt of Ian McKelvie has been well described albeit in an unflattering way by Peter Wheeler in his letter above,’ said Dr Cleave. ‘What happened at Manfeild seems to have been more of the same; a strange kind of lofty denial that there is a debt and then an ongoing drift into further debt. Put that together with the drift and stagnation that we have with the Manawatu River and its pollution and I say the people of the Rangitikei deserve a lot better.’
One final thing; Dr Cleave said,'Peter Wheeler makes a good critique of the local Fairfax media who have set a standard in reporting minutiae and leaving out the main story that would set John Cleese off on one of his silly walks. As council and court proceedings are covered point by dreary point the progressive pollution of the Manawatu river by cities, towns, farmers and others has gone on noticed by some and almost willfully ignored by others. Who has been part of the problem and who has been part of the solution?'
Drifting into two kinds of debt and more.
Dr Peter Cleave, Mana, Rangitikei said today that there were two major kinds of debt for constituents in the Rangitikei electorate to beware of. The first of these is the ETS. Unsuspecting taxpayers will foot the bill while corporates slide out of their commitments. At this stage we will overshoot our commitment to Kyoto. Who will pay?
Dr Cleave set out the broad strokes of the present ETS position for Aotearoa-New Zealand;
• NZ is expected to overshoot its Kyoto target by 18%
• The ETS pays for less than 20% of the resulting liability
• The Government is borrowing forest credits to cover the gap and when this is properly accounted for, NZ is today 49 megatonnes in deficit – a multibillion dollar liability, the scale of which depends on future carbon prices.
‘As if this is not bad enough there is a catch,’ said Dr Cleave. He then set out the way this forty nine megatonne deficit could drift into escalating debt depending on carbon prices. This total position of a 49 megatonne deficit is worth:
• $1 billion at the $20.33/tonne carbon price used in the Budget;
• $2.45 billion at the $50/tonne figure the government uses for modeling after 2012 (when the credits seem much more likely to be purchased); and
• $5 billion if carbon prices rise to $100/tonne.
‘We cannot afford to sit with our heads in the sand denying the science of global warming and calling the ETS ‘a big con’ as Ian McKelvie is doing,’ said Dr Cleave. ‘And just as the Occupy protesters are telling us about the way financial markets have been corrupted we need to be wary of the same thing happening with the carbon market. It would be tragic if corporates manipulated this so that poor and working folk bore the burden of ETS overshoots.’
The second kind of debt is illustrated in a recent letter to the Manawatu Standard by Peter Wheeler (12.11.11). This involves Manfeild;
‘Manawatu District Mayor and National candidate for Rangitikei does it again, firstly he bails out the Manfeild Park Trust using rate payers money by buying back land gifted to the trust. Beat that for stupidity. Then he plans to sell off large chunks of district council land to the PNCC to get his council out of hock. And now he thinks that the National Parties policy on the Emissions Trading Scheme is a load of rubbish. What next, a subsidy to dairy farmers to continue polluting our rivers and land. He is already being subsidised for doing just that [polluting our rivers].
Even after this erratic and irrational behaviour the Manawatu Standard’s Grant Miller attempts to paint McKelvie as some sort of hero. We all know the National Party could nominate any farm animal as its candidate for Rangitikei and still win the seat but these days I'm sure even dairy farmers are looking for forward
looking leaders who accept that climate change is a fact and that farming or continuing to pollute our rivers needs serious consideration.
Finally and using the now infamous words of his [McKelvie's] party leader Key,
"Just show us the money" Ian. You couldn't do it for Manfeild; you couldn't do it for your council, so we must presume that you can't do it for the ETS.’
‘I support what Peter Wheeler is saying in his letter,’ said Dr Cleave. ‘We cannot afford to drift into debt this way.’
‘There is more,’ said Dr Cleave ‘There is a culture of aimless drift in the Manawatu at the municipal and the parliamentary representative levels. A major case has drifted in and out of court recently between Horizons and the Palmerston North City Council with one accusing the other of non- compliance regarding pollution. Aside from lawyers’ fees there is mention of a $600,000 fine. I have called for the Auditor General to look at this wastage of ratepayers and taxpayers money,’ said Dr Cleave. ’These things should not be getting to court, there should be proper systems whereby one council monitors another without wasting money on lawyers and fines.’
Dr Cleave noted that many locals are upset.
‘The unconscious drifting into debt of Ian McKelvie has been well described albeit in an unflattering way by Peter Wheeler in his letter above,’ said Dr Cleave. ‘What happened at Manfeild seems to have been more of the same; a strange kind of lofty denial that there is a debt and then an ongoing drift into further debt. Put that together with the drift and stagnation that we have with the Manawatu River and its pollution and I say the people of the Rangitikei deserve a lot better.’
One final thing; Dr Cleave said,'Peter Wheeler makes a good critique of the local Fairfax media who have set a standard in reporting minutiae and leaving out the main story that would set John Cleese off on one of his silly walks. As council and court proceedings are covered point by dreary point the progressive pollution of the Manawatu river by cities, towns, farmers and others has gone on noticed by some and almost willfully ignored by others. Who has been part of the problem and who has been part of the solution?'
Two ticks- Peter Cleave, Mana
Monday, 7 November 2011, 12:58 pm
Press Release: Farmside
3 November 2011
Peter Cleave: Address to constituents in Taumarunui 20.10.11
Peter Cleave and Mana – two ticks from Rangitikei for supporting rural communities rorted by Lines Company with their (not so)smart meters
Submission:
I met Peter Cleave recently, and for my money he and MANA deserve two ticks on election day. This man is short on ego and rhetoric, and long on listening and taking on board the plight of the rural poor in Rangitikei
He is so right about the demise of small rural communities - communities like Taihape in the Rangitikei Electorate, which in an ideal world he hopefully will be representing soon. While our hospital, shops, and timber mills close, throwing hundreds onto the unemployment scrap heap, to become more fodder for the beneficiary bashers, our erstwhile National MP studiously ignored the plight of this community - far to busy dreaming up draconian legislation such as the reduced ability to be represented under legal aid, which on top of the recession would further disadvantage the working poor and beneficiaries.
In standing for MANA Peter Cleave joins heroes of the poor such as Sue Bradford, in trying to turn around the brave new world mantra of asset sales and user pays - so beloved by John Key's government and, by association, his stooges in the Maori Party.
A brave new world that on one hand preaches the evils of global warming, and taxes us for our use of that life giving element, carbon, while on the other hand allows monopoly powercos to rort the public with (not-so)smart meters. Oh well, the more electricity used by these powered appliances - they aren't just meters in the old sense - and their (not-so)smart adjuncts - smart appliances and smart plugs, the greater the excuse for Labour, National, and the environmentally deluded Greens to push for yet more inefficient industrial wind developments to litter our iconic rural landscapes with their pin-wheel junkyards.
What we in rural communities need is the facility to generate our own electricity, and sell it back to the powercos, as happens in at least 40 countries. The banks in these countries are only too happy to offer cheap loans for 100% of the infrastructure costs to domestic power generaters, because they know their investment is 100% safe. The cost to the home power generater is easily covered by what they sell their excess power for. Instead many in the Rangitikei are lumbered with one powerco forcibly requiring them to spend more on their power - not less! What madness is this, and who is driving it? You guessed it - BIG BUSINESS, aided and abetted by BIG GOVERNMENT which just loves those fat dividends the state owned powercos deliver.
What can we do? In the meantime, don't pay the robber barons any more than you have to. Shun smart appliances, and turn everything off at the wall when not in use. A microwave oven constantly switched on at the wall, over a year can use as much power from the little lights that stay on, as it does in actually cooking food. And lobby candidates and your elected representatives to support a domestic electricity buy back tariff. That's two small steps...
Go Peter Cleave! Go MANA. Kia kaha
Press Release: Farmside
3 November 2011
Peter Cleave: Address to constituents in Taumarunui 20.10.11
Peter Cleave and Mana – two ticks from Rangitikei for supporting rural communities rorted by Lines Company with their (not so)smart meters
Submission:
I met Peter Cleave recently, and for my money he and MANA deserve two ticks on election day. This man is short on ego and rhetoric, and long on listening and taking on board the plight of the rural poor in Rangitikei
He is so right about the demise of small rural communities - communities like Taihape in the Rangitikei Electorate, which in an ideal world he hopefully will be representing soon. While our hospital, shops, and timber mills close, throwing hundreds onto the unemployment scrap heap, to become more fodder for the beneficiary bashers, our erstwhile National MP studiously ignored the plight of this community - far to busy dreaming up draconian legislation such as the reduced ability to be represented under legal aid, which on top of the recession would further disadvantage the working poor and beneficiaries.
In standing for MANA Peter Cleave joins heroes of the poor such as Sue Bradford, in trying to turn around the brave new world mantra of asset sales and user pays - so beloved by John Key's government and, by association, his stooges in the Maori Party.
A brave new world that on one hand preaches the evils of global warming, and taxes us for our use of that life giving element, carbon, while on the other hand allows monopoly powercos to rort the public with (not-so)smart meters. Oh well, the more electricity used by these powered appliances - they aren't just meters in the old sense - and their (not-so)smart adjuncts - smart appliances and smart plugs, the greater the excuse for Labour, National, and the environmentally deluded Greens to push for yet more inefficient industrial wind developments to litter our iconic rural landscapes with their pin-wheel junkyards.
What we in rural communities need is the facility to generate our own electricity, and sell it back to the powercos, as happens in at least 40 countries. The banks in these countries are only too happy to offer cheap loans for 100% of the infrastructure costs to domestic power generaters, because they know their investment is 100% safe. The cost to the home power generater is easily covered by what they sell their excess power for. Instead many in the Rangitikei are lumbered with one powerco forcibly requiring them to spend more on their power - not less! What madness is this, and who is driving it? You guessed it - BIG BUSINESS, aided and abetted by BIG GOVERNMENT which just loves those fat dividends the state owned powercos deliver.
What can we do? In the meantime, don't pay the robber barons any more than you have to. Shun smart appliances, and turn everything off at the wall when not in use. A microwave oven constantly switched on at the wall, over a year can use as much power from the little lights that stay on, as it does in actually cooking food. And lobby candidates and your elected representatives to support a domestic electricity buy back tariff. That's two small steps...
Go Peter Cleave! Go MANA. Kia kaha
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