A view by Karl Webber from his hangout on Motungarara Island, near the south end of Kapiti island..

By Roger Childs

The All Blacks have had two wins, two loses and a draw in the tests over the last two months. This is not the sort of record that the players or supporters are used to. In the games against the Wallabies in Auckland and Sydney the team played with passion, flair and commitment to score plenty of tries and nail decisive victories. The fans would love to see this approach on Saturday in the return match with the Pumas.

Lessons learned?

The All Blacks will have learnt a lot from the earlier loss to the Argentines, and both players and coaches will know that their reputations are on the line. They need to take the game to their opponents and vary the tactics. 

 In the first test the All Blacks were far too predictable and telegraphed most of their moves. They also kicked away too much precious possession. There was also the overuse of forward bashing up the middle instead of getting the ball out to the fast men.

Make it a guessing game

Tactically, if you are going to win, you need to keep the opposition guessing. On Saturday the All Blacks need to vary the play in the backs with a combination of quick passing, double rounds, kicking over the top into space and occasionally running two lines. Forwards out in the backs slow the game down and in the clutter the opposition can easily nail the man with the ball. If there are to be high kicks they should be designed to allow players to have an even chance of retrieving the ball.

The front row has been strengthened with Nepo Laulala named at prop in the run-on team. At rucks, mauls and lineouts all eight forwards should be contesting for possession instead of having players standing off.  A bad feature of Super Rugby and the tests this year has been two or three defending forwards watching the opposition eight advancing from lineout drives and rolling mauls. Once the opposition gets momentum going forward push-back becomes impossible.

Speed to the loose ball is critical to win possession or create turnovers. The inclusion of Akira Ioane on the flank for Saturday’s match will hopefully make the All Blacks sharper in this vital facet of the game. 

Discipline is critical

This aspect is vital to provide the basis for success. It is always tempting to retaliate to off the ball illegal play, but the All Blacks must focus on not giving away stupid penalties, Puma’s goal kicker Nicolás Sánchez has slotted 11 penalties in his last two outings and will happily kick more in the up-coming match, if given the chance. Sam Cane needs to be much more assertive as captain in maintaining discipline and being able to change the game plan should it be necessary.

The All Blacks have the team to win on Saturday and will definitely not want three losses on the trot. There should be plenty of motivation to end the season on a high, but it will take a combination of tactical nous, strict discipline, forward commitment and flair in the backs to pull it off. 

Almost everyone in Kapiti knows that KCDC is one of the most problematic councils in the country — among other things, it has bloated inefficient staffing, very high indebtedness, and a record of bad decisions combined with mismanagement over more than a decade — but other councils are problematic too.

This article on the BFD deals with the accountability issue, and backs up Cr Gwynn Compton’s call for a Royal Commission on local government.

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In the week I am writing this, Wellington City Council has announced it is facing a whopping 23% rates rise, and Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell has resigned amidst calls to replace elected councillors with a government commissioner.

There is something seriously wrong with our council system.

In order to have any chance of fixing the problems, we need to be clear and honest about what the root causes are. To do that, we need to understand the structure of councils and how they operate.

The Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) effectively creates two separate organisations. We elect councillors. We do not elect the council.

Councillors have very limited power and are supposed to keep out of operational matters. The councillors employ one person – the chief executive. All council staff are employed by the chief executive. This is the root cause of the lack of accountability. Staff do not answer to the councillors, who are our elected representatives. Therefore staff do not answer to citizens or ratepayers.

We are led to believe we can change council by voting out councillors once every three years. The reality is that our elected representatives are the fall guys for poor performance by staff. We, the people, get angry and frustrated at waste and poor service, but we cannot change the council’s processes or staff agendas.

Read the rest

The Finance Minister appeals to the Governor of the Reserve Bank. Another great cartoon by Andy Tristram of Kapiti Independent News.

Waikanae station now has a little brown-coloured boxy structure containing 24/7 loos.

There was no official opening on Monday by the Governor General, Kapiti’s Guru of Gurus or even the present Waikanae ward councilor, although according to this media release, she is quoted as saying, “it will help the Waikanae commuting community to go about their business. The shortage of public toilets in Waikanae has been an issue Council has been trying to get to the bottom of for some time.”

As she is someone who rarely smiles, let alone makes jokes, we suspect this quote was actually composed by the Kapiti Ministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, located at 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu.

Councillor Gwynn Compton has written to parties from across Parliament calling on them to work together to establish a Royal Commission on Local Government in order to overhaul the sector so it is fit for purpose as it struggles to deal with numerous challenges that it is not adequately equipped to address.

“Our current local government arrangements were put in place more than 40 years ago. From looking around the country, it’s clear the system isn’t coping with the numerous and significant challenges facing the sector such as accommodating rapid population growth, making up for decades of underinvestment in infrastructure, dealing with massive reforms of both the Three Waters and Resource Management Act, playing its part in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change,” says Cr Compton.

While Cr Compton’s call for a Royal Commission represents his own personal view and not that of Kāpiti Coast District Council, he says he’s aware of significant support for reform from both elected members and the communities they serve across New Zealand.

“It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the structure and financing of local government isn’t a good fit for the challenges it now finds itself facing. For example, its heavy dependence on property rates to fund the services and community facilities it provides has been shown to be politically and financially unsustainable in the long-term, with councils around New Zealand now under enormous pressure with the shortcomings of that dependency coming home to roost.

“Likewise, with central government infrastructure projects like Transmission Gully set to bring Kāpiti, Porirua, the Hutt Valley, and Wellington closer together than ever before, decisions that take place in one territorial authority are going to have direct impacts on communities outside its existing borders. The current response to this, of implementing even more bureaucracy on top of existing territorial authorities through various forums and joint committees, is confusing and only serves to further distance decision making and accountability from communities.” 

Cr Compton’s call for a Royal Commission envisages its terms of reference covering the role, structure, and financing of local government, ensuring a consistent approach to Māori wards and iwi participation across the country, and reviewing the role of the Local Government Commission.

“Change on this scale is politically difficult and can be understandably daunting for the communities involved. This is why following the Royal Commission approach, which laid the groundwork for successful change in Auckland and gave the process the necessary independence and trust needed to proceed, should be used over that of the Local Government Commission’s failed Wellington region proposal.”

As always, views expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of your editors. We’re publishing this one month out from Christmas, but there are other commercialised holidays.

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By Bill Clague

Given that Christmas is now being advertised, and has been for the last month, I feel it is time for me to finally address an issue that has been bugging me for the last 30 or more years.

I find this focus on commercial holidays to be obscene. Christmas, for example, is not about the Christian festival it was supposed to celebrate .It’s more about spending money, buying gifts and the joy of Rudolph and Santa Claus, both inventions of the Coca Cola Company. [Coca-Cola did not create the legend of Santa Claus, but its advertising in 1931 did play a big role in shaping the jolly character we know today. —Eds]

So, my decision is to no longer support, in any way, this and other commercial holidays. For me these are Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter Bunny day and so forth. It does not mean my friends or family should follow suit. It is obviously their own decision. 

For those of you addicted to such man-made festivals, I would like to ask you to consider instead donating the money you would have spent on me to a charity of your choice.  Please note that I will not buy you a goat and then send you the card that the organisation produces to assure you that I am thinking of you, thus making me feel good and proving I am wealthy enough to do so.

Have a people focus

I appreciate that there are those that will insist on sending me cards, underwear, chocolates and a host of sentimental and other useless items. With the above thoughts in mind, cards will go unopened to the recycle yard and gifts (usually wrapped in polluting plastic) will be passed on to whichever charity can best use them.

None of the above means I will ignore this end of the year. Instead, I will spend a quiet time reflecting on friends and family, both here and those gone forever.

Finding a worthy cause

I do intend, at Christmas, to give something to a worthy cause. The Salvation Army or Doctors and Nurses in war torn countries would be my first choice.

My holiday season donation will be to the Wonder Boy Trust in memory of Elijah North, my grandson who passed away last month. (See this post.) The Trust has been set up to provide funds for those that have disabled children and are unable to afford getting their children to NAPA (Neurological and Physical Abilities) centres. Their treatment made a tremendous difference for Elijah during his brief life.

This collection is of critical importance to re-stock the shelves of your local Foodbank for another year.

by Roger Childs

Increased demand

The 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown and its economic consequence has seen an increase in the demand for food and other supplies from less well-off New Zealanders. The Kapiti area has been no exception and this coming Saturday – 28 November – the Combined Lions Clubs of Kapiti are coordinating the Annual Foodbank Appeal.

The local Foodbank was originally located in McGrath Ave, Paraparaumu Beach on the north–west side of the airport. It later moved to a building on Kapiti Road which had previously been occupied by the Kapiti Medical Centre. Unfortunately, although the building had plenty of space, its location east of the expressway made it difficult to access especially for people coming from Paraparaumu who had to cross the traffic on this very busy road.

A much safer and easily accessed location on the southern side of the Community Centre opposite the Kapiti School grounds is now the home of The Kapiti Foodbank. 

The official address is 15 Ngahina St, Paraparaumu.

How the Foodbank operates

The Kapiti Foodbank is a registered charity run by volunteers. It provides for the needs of people in the Kapiti District from Paekakariki to Peka Peka, (Otaki has its own Foodbank.)

The Foodbank is open from 8.30am to 12.30pm for contributions to be delivered, and from 10.00am to 12.00am for people wanting food parcels. 

Contributions can be placed in bins at supermarkets in Waikanae and Paraparaumu, however, vegetables and fruit need to be delivered directly to the Foodbank.

The Appeal on Saturday 28 November

Items most needed–

• Tinned fish and meat
• Cereals 
• Tinned tomatoes and fruit
• Tinned and packet soups
• Spreads, jams, vegemite
• Pasta, rice, noodles and pasta sauce
• Spaghetti and baked beans
• Tea, coffee, fruit drinks
• Sugar, flour and other baking ingredients
• Toiletries
• Christmas treats

Leave donations outside your gate where collectors can see it by 9.30 am on Saturday.

It’s not clear when the invitation to the public for ideas about the library and service centre will happen: the council website states:–

“The future Waikanae Library is currently at this stage

November 2020 to March 2021

“As part of the Long Term Plan pre-consultation, We’ll be asking the community to tell us their ideas for a new library/Council service centre. Comments will inform our Long-term Plan bid for a new or upgraded facility.”