Hot Air
Apples and Productivity or Churn
There is much talk about productivity among our political leaders.
What do they mean?
The Government has recently announced funding for the Reserve Bank for the next 5 years will be 750 million dollars. Spun as a cut from the requested 1 billion but still a lift that is reflected in other Government spheres of fiscal responsibility.
The Reserve Bank is typical of Public Service elites whos numbers have grown like spears of asparagus on a warm spring day .We the people are waiting for someone to arrive with a sharp knife to cut them off at the base figure. Curtail their urge to extend in to the next office block.
More and more public servants move toward the trough that is continually being filled by the gumbooted taxpayers slogging to eek out a living while paying the bills and being fleeced of tax to fill the trough.
These gumbooted taxpayers are the ones who are perky people who possess hopes and aspirations , dreams and desires. They battle away with a smile on their faces , actually producing something tangible for the country.
Something that can be seen , felt and admired , put in a container and shipped off to return dollars to our once wonderful country.
May be I am unfair picking on the Reserve Bank but it is representative of what has been quietly happening with no constraint .Staffing levels have increased from 255 full time equivalents in 2017/18 to 660 by January 2025!
Treasury makes the quaint observation that they 'appear to be overstaffed'!
Well, now to the point.
This same expansion of , what to me is the unproductive sector , is reflected in Local Government.
There are a host of reasons this has occurred but it has.
The Regional Council now has over 500 on its staff.
To make the economic connection with these outrageous numbers and the flood, we see a whole community, a number of communities , that were productive and by that I mean highly productive , that have been systematically dismantled and dismembered in a sense but in a strange twist valued for their productive capabilities.
Esk Valley, Sacred Hill and Sophora Village have been salvaged but the pain and the stress endure.
Two years down the track and the scene has changed dramatically .Many have been able to resurrect their productive capability but at a cost. Sure those who had good insurance coverage may now be in a strong position but many have gone.
For those who are struggling on, two years has been a time lost. A hole that is hard to fill.
So. As they say today, the authorities want to keep making life difficult for those who have been disadvantaged.
There is no flexibility with rates as the valuations in place prior to the flood are still being used and QV and Councils will not review this situation.
EQC will not cover earthquake and fire when these have nothing to do with flooding!
There is huge expenditure being proposed that is unnecessary .Works on flood control that is because of modelling and kneejerk reactions , not logic and reason.
The productive communities I have mentioned really need recognition for their huge part in the Hawkes Bay economy and the likes of the Regional Council , sitting on $500 million, ironically half of which they received as a result of a natural disaster, could well make a grant to people who have endured this event and help patch the hole that the last two years has presented us with.
The productive areas of Sacred Hill, Esk Valley and Sophora Village are far more important to Hawkes Bay than an expanding public service and ratcheting rates .
