Taranaki loves competition: we do great on the sports field. But there are other more serious competitions. They are the competitions that produce our wealth and our quality of life.
           
Our airport
We were thrust into a competition when Jetstar announced it was going to provide cheap flights to four provincial cities. Jetstar is assessing Hamilton, Rotorua, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Nelson and Invercargill as potential options. They will use older (but cheaper) planes and the cost of a ticket will be fantastic.

I travel quite a bit and would fly more often if the cost of flights from New Plymouth was reasonable. When I go to Nelson, where my son’s family lives, I take the car on the ferry. I would fly if the price was right.

Once the Jetstar announcement was made there were statements from different regions singing their own praises. The competition had begun. I wondered how we were doing. Venture Taranaki told me “We’re meeting with Jetstar early next month, but at this stage haven’t done any research”.  My email to the New Plymouth Council solicited a prompt reply from Kevin Hill the Airport Manager: “We have not made any submissions at this stage. A meeting with Jetstar is in the planning for early July at New Plymouth to start discussion as NP is in a terminal re-development stage and we don’t have the immediate infrastructure to handle them”. 

Our representatives could have said “this is a fantastic opportunity to advance Taranaki and we are working on a coordinated marketing strategy”.  They could have said that, but they did not. I am not very hopeful that we will win out against the other regions. This is a pity because there is an $11 million expansion of the airport underway (Government and user pays).

I agree with Transport Minister Simon Bridges when he said the project will be a “significant piece of infrastructure for Taranaki, and important for the economic progress of the region”. NP mayor Andrew Judd was reported as having been most concerned that the deal did not cost ratepayers anything. He did not want ratepayers invest in the prosperity of our region.

STDC
Another competition that occupies many at the moment is that with the weather. When I asked some questions of the South Taranaki District Council this week, Communications Advisor Rachael Harris asked me if I would mind waiting a week because many of the staff were out of the office dealing with civil defence/flooding situations at the southern end of our district. I was happy to agree. The law gives the Council three weeks to reply to any request for information. Then she sent me an email giving more help.  I was impressed!  Her replies were positive, thoughtful and helpful.

Buses
Opunake is in a competition for money to run the bus services. We all agree that there should be a bus service between Opunake, Hawera and New Plymouth. The link to Base Hospital is vital. But, who should pay for our service?

There are several teams that have to take the field for us in this competition. The most important are our regional councillors: David MacLeod, Michael Joyce and Neil Walker. They must persuade their colleagues on Council of the importance of these buses as a public service (which means they have to be funded from rates regardless of the level of use).

Other organisations must play a part and provide our regional councillors with ammunition. The most important of these is the STDC councillors, and then our Egmont Community Board members. Council officers will provide advice, but it is up to the councillors to direct, fine tune and personally present submissions to the regional council.

Match fit?
If the same effort that goes into sports went into marketing and building public services we would all be better off. STDC looks to be match fit, but I do not know about our other teams. Let us see what they achieve for us.

Robert Shaw
robert@porirua.net