Local Opinion

Three decades, no improvement

Thirty two years ago our household was divided over the matter of the referendum that canvassed opinion as to MMP – or not. I was strongly against it as I felt that a 61 seat…

Paying for public transport

Waikato Regional Council recently confirmed its proposed Annual Plan budget. Thanks to a lot of good work by our chief executive and his staff, careful consideration by councillors and following a series of workshops with…

Constrained by circumstances?

I’ve been watching some tenacious tomatoes growing in our vegetable patch. Among a crop of normal tomatoes spreading up against trellis on a wooden paling fence, a few have grown very weird. They must have…

Pedestrians at risk

Students are again regularly riding at speed on pavements in the main shopping areas of town on their daily commute. This poses a risk to other pavement users – especially after school – when many…

When volcanoes shake

A very important part of volcano monitoring is understanding seismicity, meaning earthquakes or vibrations that move through the Earth that we sometimes feel at the surface. Most volcanic earthquakes are too small to be felt…

Uncertainty can be corrosive

Donald Trump has been dominating global news since he took office as he keeps up a constant stream of ideas, decisions, postponement of decisions and the flying of all kinds of kites. He has created…

Our common problem

The Auschwitz prison sirens wailed long and loud in 1941 announcing a prisoner’s escape. In reprisal, 10 fellow prisoners would die – a slow starvation, buried alive in a specially constructed concrete bunker. Tortured by…

Catches and con artists

Starting with catches, police in Cambridge responded to a family harm event last weekend where a male was reported for threatening to kill a female. He had left the address but was found to also…

Learning from disasters

The term “natural disaster” is a bit outdated. We have natural hazards, sure, but disasters don’t exist without us, and they are made worse by poor planning, decision making, and preparation. If an identical eruption…

Change and challenges ahead

Change is in the air for 2025 at Waikato District Council as we welcomed our new chief executive this week. Craig Hobbs brings with him a strong knowledge of local government, having been chief executive…

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