I feel like my game is getting better over time, and I believe I’m really close on being crowned a grand slam champion. I know these are strong words that I say, but I do feel like I belong to be there. —Stephanos Tsitsipas

Breaking the stranglehold

By Roger Childs

Austrian Dominic Thiem’s four set victory over world number one, Rafael Nadal, in the Australian Open quarter finals is a major success for the younger brigade. For the last three years all the grand slams – twelve of them – have been won by the 30+ legends: Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. So is this the tournament where the stranglehold of these aging greats is broken?

Possibly. While Thiem will play 22 year old German Alexander Zverev in one semi-final, it is no surprise that Djokovic plays Federer in the other. The Serb who is ranked two in the world is expected to win that one, so then the opportunity for a new champion will come on Sunday.

Younger players coming through

A chink in the armour of the “three kings” came in last year’s ATP Finals. This is the most prestigious tournament outside the majors, as it pits the eight top ranked men in the world against each other.  There were five players 23 or under in the group – Stephanos Tsitsipas 21, Daniil Medvedev 23, Denis Shapovalov 20, Alexander Zverev 22, and Matteo Berrettini 23. Tsitsipas, from Greece, won the trophy. 

Zverev

However, in the current Australian Open, only Zverev out of those five made the quarter–finals, whereas Nadal, Federer and Djokovic all did. The Spaniard is now out, but Fed and the Joker are in the semi-finals.

It is the grand slam level that is the measure of tennis greatness. To take over from the big three, the younger players have to start winning the majors.

Not easy

The Times tennis reporter Simon Barnes commented in 2012 writing about Andy Murray – he had made a major error in [playing] at a time when three players of undisputed all-time greatness are all plying their trade. 

Eight years on they are still playing very well and remain the three top ranked players on the planet. Thiem deserved his quarter final win over Nadal, however the Spaniard pushed him hard and the Austrian’s three set wins were all 7-6 after tie-breaks.

The big three are not going give up their supremacy easily, especially as they are keen to add to their grand slam totals — Federer 20; Nadal 19; Djokovic 16.

Can the breakthrough come in Sunday’s Australian Open final? Either Zverev or Thiem will have the chance against Djokovic. There is no question that a grand slam victory for one of these players in their twenties would be good for the game.

First, a media release from the KCDC:

In March, the Kāpiti Coast District Council will hold a Summit and community event to kick-start a conversation on the challenges climate change will bring to our coastline.

National and local leaders and climate experts will address the Summit conference in the morning followed by a community event that will combine entertainment, food and family fun with the opportunity to find out more about climate change and its effect on our coastline.

Professor James Renwick, Māhina-a-rangi Baker and Professor Bruce Glavovic will be presenting on the day with more speakers to be announced.

The Summit launches a significant community engagement project that aims to encourage and empower our communities to become more aware of the impacts of climate change and sea level rise and to take part in developing solutions and pathways for adapting to coming change.

Kāpiti Coast District Mayor K Gurunathan says the Takutai Kāpiti Climate Change and Our Coast Summit will take place on Sunday 8 March 2020 at Ngā Purapura in Ōtaki, and is a chance for the community to come together to discuss the issues and the challenges we face.

“As a coastal district, we know our community is facing significant environmental challenges as the result of our changing climate and rising sea levels which will erode our coastline over time,” says Mayor Gurunathan.

“In May last year we declared a climate emergency on the Kāpiti Coast. This is political recognition that our communities are facing an iceberg of significant costs now, and increasingly over the coming decades, from coastal erosion and floods.

“While we don’t know how significant these changes will be and how quickly they will happen, we do know that communities that plan for change, and work together, are more resilient in the face of that change.

“I encourage anyone in our community that is interested in how we respond to these challenges together, or wants to learn and share knowledge, to join us at Takutai Kāpiti.

“We won’t solve climate change issues for Kāpiti at one Summit – but it will be the start of a community-led process for responding to coastal change in the district,” says Mayor Gurunathan.

Councillor Sophie Handford says the devastating fires in Australia are a stark reminder of how quickly we need to come together and take action.

“The fires show what the consequences will be worldwide if we fail to reduce our emissions and adapt by building resilient communities.

“If we don’t commit to having the conversation on climate change and our coast, and acting on it, we may have a completely different world to hand on to our children and our mokopuna.

“Responding to climate change is the defining moment for our generation and we all need to be part of this journey together,” she says.

Event details
What: Takutai Kāpiti: Climate Change and Our Coast Summit

When: Sunday 8 March 2020

10 am–12 pm Summit conference: opportunity to hear from national and local climate experts. Spaces are limited so book your free place at www.takutaikapiti.nz

12 pm–3 pm Summit community event: opportunity to enjoy an afternoon of food and entertainment and hear more from experts and community groups on the community-led coastal adaptation project. (No need to book — just come along!)

Where: Held at Ngā Purapura, 145 Tasman Road, Ōtaki.

The KCDC is clearly a corporate ‘true believer’ in Climatism; by way of balance, here is a speech by the spokesman of another body, Coastal Ratepayers United, which in terms of the new religion must be a ‘heretic’. This was given to the council meeting yesterday by Quentin Poole of Waikanae Beach.

[Speaking to council agenda item]  8.4   Resource Management Act issues and options draft submission

CRU is aghast at the folk tales about the Proposed District Plan — which no doubt still circulate on Rimu Rd — which emanate in this paper.

We have spent only 1 hour in researching this paper and we have found the following:

Page 4, third paragraph of the draft says:

“Councils are already dealing with the impacts of climate change as they respond to increased flooding and inundation events and the problems these create for our communities and infrastructure.”

This is an uncorroborated statement not supported by facts that we can find in any literature.

The Kapiti Coast has had one major storm event since 1976 – the event in 2016 only damaged a piece of KCDC infrastructure that had not been maintained.

We ask that this statement is either supported by factual references or removed.

Page 4, second paragraph of the draft says:

“The Schedule 1 plan making process, with full public consultation and appeal rights, means that plan changes that are needed to protect our communities are able to be held up by small factions concerned about their own interests (e.g., fears over the impact of hazard lines may have on their property values) over the needs of the community at large. This can lead to drawn out and expensive plan changes that may not ultimately be successful and a proliferation of other litigation.”

This is outrageous.

The hazard lines were rejected during expert review because they were scientifically unsound, and not fit for purpose. Good science and good planning is not going to be overturned by litigation, and it would not be worth anyone’s while to try. The hazard lines would not in fact have protected the community.

When councils mess up and refuse to admit it, as happened in this case, recourse to the legal system is the only redress that ratepayers have. In a just society, there must be some independent way to overturn bad planning proposals when the proponents have no intention of admitting error. At present, the legal system is the only recourse.

A previous Mayor said publicly that if residents did not like the proposed plan, they should “lawyer up”. With such an attitude, no consultation process can be effective, and indeed there can be no belief that any consultation would be in good faith. We do not suggest that the present council — either councillors or staff — share that view, but the possibility is not just theoretical.

We ask that councillors delete these sentences from the draft prepared by staff.

Page 4 : there is again reference to KCDC’s problems with the PDP.

“Our second generation plan was first publically[sic] notified in 2012, decisions were notified in 2017 and this year we are expecting to resolve the remaining appeals so the plan can be made operative – some 8 years after first notification.”

This is used to argue against allowing appeals against a plan once approved.

Again, however, this history fails to mention that the PDP (as a whole, not just the coastal provisions) was so bad that an expert panel said it was touch and go whether the whole thing should simply be withdrawn and re-done properly.

Instead, KCDC decided to have it extensively rewritten by the expert hearings panel at what must have been enormous daily rates over a very long time. The PDP took forever to get right because it was so incompetently drafted in the first place. And CRU’s appeal points, all of which were accepted in substance by Council staff, helped to fix several serious remaining problems in the plan after the hearings panel had been through it.

KCDC should be grateful for CRU’s constructive engagement at the appeal stage, not arguing to remove the rights of appeal — prior consultation is necessary, but it is not a substitute.

We ask that councillors delete this whole section [Schedule 1 Process – Consultation and Appeal Rights] and the first paragraph of the next section [Plan oversight] as there seems no remaining point to make once the full facts are set out. Also all other references to consultation and appeal rights in the document be removed.

CRU has been unable to peruse the entire document due to time constraints; however, we note that there are issues promulgated in this document that have never been canvassed by the community – e.g. “Managed Retreat”.

Council should be the conduit of its citizens’ wishes rather than telling the citizens what they can do as in “Big Brother”.

We suggest that councillors withdraw this draft paper in its entirety so it can be re-written showing the aspirations of its citizens.

Note that there are several experts in the community who have offered help in the past to KCDC in these matters which KCDC has never availed itself of.

I personally find it incredulous that a council that voted for a “Climate Emergency” last year, now finds it is not so much of an emergency as the review!

Thriller Killers — the appeal of the crime genre

By Ralph McAllister

People who don’t read crime novels often ask me where the appeal lies.

Rather than entering a debate, yet again with my friends, here are four new examples of the genre, read in the first weeks of 2020, which might persuade you, if you need persuading, that millions of people cannot all be wrong.

Chris Hammer in great form

First Australia, and Chris Hammer in a follow up to his terrifying Scrublands.

Silver has Martin revisiting his childhood Port Silver where he hopes to begin a new life with his partner the feisty Mandy. Problem is, no sooner do they start to settle in than she is accused of murder.

The treacherous outback of Scrublands gives way to the threatening landscape of coastal Queensland. The plot is fast and intricate and if you are into maps and mystery, this might just be for you.

The ever reliable Michael Connolly

Michael Connelly, in what might be his 30th book, The Night Fire, brings back an aging retired Bosch, complete with walking stick and a new partner Ballard, as they try to solve two cases, one cold and the other immediate and very bloody.

Is this writer ever going to falter?

Not with me.

Scandanavian noir – disturbing but gripping

Three Hours by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström is the third in a series which started with Three Seconds, then Three Minutes both major best sellers, first in their native Sweden and then worldwide.

A dark and deeply upsetting story which starts with a container being opened near Stockholm to reveal seventy three refugees’ bodies, reunites Ewert Grens and Piet Hoffman as they discover that the perpetrators of this heinous crime may be Swedish.

Not for the faint hearted but a gripping and relentless page turner.

Sadly Börge Hellström died last year so this unique partnership has ended.

A talented Irish writer

Finally, The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan is a follow up on her first best selling The Ruin, this time detective Cormac Reilly is yet again in trouble with authority, his friends and brutal murders which involve his girl friend Emma.

This young Irish writer promises a third novel this year.

I await it impatiently.

He says he often gets requests for photos from admiring passers-by. 🙂

Let them rest in peace. They’re not lost, we know where they are,” —Marion Curtin, mother of Pike River Mine victim Richard Holling, January 2020.

by Roger Childs

Wasting money on recovering the remains

Last December the Recovery Agency CEO, Dave Gawn, indicated that there was likely to be a request in 2020 for more cash to try and get the bodies, or what remains, out of the mine. But some of the families are now questioning whether continuing with the project is worth the money.

It was estimated the second explosion in the Pike Rive mine disaster of November 2010 reached astonishing temperatures of 3000° C. The sad reality is that probably such extreme heat would have left nothing but ashes of the unfortunate 29 men caught in the blasts. Add to that the likelihood of there being massive rock falls in the shafts.

One can understand many families wanting “closure” by the retrieving what remains of the dead miners.  It might be safe to continue with re-entering the mine, drilling through the rock and siphoning off the deadly methane, but the cost has been prohibitive and what are the odds of finding any human remains after 10 years?

An appropriate memorial to the brave men

About 50 km south of Pike River, 65 men and boys were killed in the Brunner Mine disaster of March 1896. That mine was subsequently closed and in 1996 an impressive memorial was erected to the dead miners near the site.

It is probably time to accept that the Pike River Mine should also be sealed and erect a suitable memorial to the 29 men who were needlessly killed.

The least the government can do is to pay for this, and look at reopening the case against the perpetrators of the second biggest crime in recent New Zealand history, exceeded only by the Christchurch mosque attacks of March 2019. The Health and Safety Laws have been changed but that is cold comfort for the relatives of the 29.

No justice for the miners and their families

They would be still alive today if the Pike River Coal Company, led by Peter Whitall, had not been hell-bent on taking short cuts, ignoring warning signs and failing to provide worker health and safety, in trying to extract black coal from the Paparoa Range to keep their shareholders/investors happy.

Justice has not been served. The Pike River Mine disaster was corporate manslaughter and the perpetrators should have been punished long ago.

The Ōtaki to North of Levin ‘Ewy’ funding welcomed, but scant rail investment is “pathetic”

Kāpiti Coast commuter rail campaigner Gwynn Compton has welcomed the Government’s announcement of funding for the Ōtaki to north of Levin expressway, but says the lack of any investment or accelerated timeline for the double tracking and electrification of the rail network from Waikanae to Ōtaki, or even for new hybrid train units for the Capital Connection service, is a missed opportunity and shows the Government isn’t serious about its commitment to better transport infrastructure or addressing climate change.

“Funding for the Ōtaki to north of Levin expressway will alleviate weekend and holiday traffic issues that have plagued our region for decades. But the Government’s plan for rail services in Kāpiti and the Horowhenua, which essentially amounts to refurbishing the Capital Connection carriages and funding the bare minimum of track upgrades, is pathetic, short-sighted, and a missed opportunity to show genuine leadership on infrastructure investment and air pollution reduction,” says Cr Compton.

The wider Kāpiti-Horowhenua region is growing rapidly with population growth rates having more than doubled in the past five years. Growth rates are likely to skyrocket further when Transmission Gully opens and draws even more commuters who will need fast and frequent train services into Wellington.

“If the Government is even remotely serious about making meaningful investments in infrastructure and tackling climate change, then they must fund new hybrid electro-diesel units for the Capital Connection as well as the extension of Wellington’s commuter train services by double tracking and electrifying the rail network at least as far as Ōtaki,” says Cr Compton.

The Capital Connection train between Wellington and Palmerston is getting hand-me-down Auckland cars.

With nearly 1,600 people having signed Gwynn Compton’s petition for Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Government to double track and electrify the rail network to Ōtaki, Gwynn Compton says there’s clear community support for significantly more investment in train services and the rail network.

“Double tracking and electrifying the rail network to Ōtaki to enable fast, frequent, reliable, and environment-friendly commuter train services will benefit communities from Waikanae through to Levin and beyond. It will take cars off our roads and reduce fossil fuel emissions, free up scarce commuter car parking in Waikanae and cut the pressure on car parking in Wellington City, and it will provide vital links to employment opportunities, education, and healthcare for the people of Ōtaki.”

Under Greater Wellington Regional Council and the Government’s current planning, the extension of full commuter rail services to Ōtaki won’t happen until sometime after 2039, meaning there will have been at least a three decade gap since full rail services were last extended to Waikanae in 2011, which Gwynn Compton says isn’t good enough.

“The people of Ōtaki waiting another 20 years, if not more, for full commuter rail services to reach them simply isn’t good enough. If this Government is as serious as they claim they are about tackling climate change and New Zealand’s infrastructure challenges, then they need to commit to funding the double tracking and electrification of the rail network to Ōtaki now to meet the needs of our growing region.”

We featured the front yard of this address in 2015 here.  This is the back yard.