|
Last week I turned my column over to my Youth Parliamentarian, Johanna Forrest.
My thanks for the excellent work she did - not only in writing an excellent column but for her dedication during the Parliament itself.
I was extremely impressed with the calibre of young people and for the way they conducted themselves during their parliamentary session.
It bodes well for this country.
But not writing the column myself meant that I could not offer my own personal sympathies to the family and friends of Linda Warrington, who lost her life during the recent floods.
My deepest condolences. Arohanui.
Also my heartfelt best wishes to all those who have lost stock or who are struggling with what has to be one of the wettest and most severe winters in many years.
I know dairyfarmers are struggling to feed their cows, calves and lambs are battling to survive and times are tough throughout the electorate.
My thanks to all those who rallied around to help neighbours and strangers alike during this latest deluge. It is times like this that we can measure ourselves as a community.
Small business Minister John Tamihere was in Masterton on Friday speaking at a business breakfast.
Feedback I have received has been very positive and I'd like to thank John for taking the time to visit.
The chance for people to have direct contact with Ministers is very important and enables them to get questions answered directly without having to go through the lengthy process of ministerials.
Some interesting data has just come out about Wairarapa's economic profile and it could be timely to pass some of this on.
Wairarapa's GDP is approximately 6 percent of the Wellington Region's, or just under $1 billion.
The latest BERL Economic Profile of Wairarapa (to 31 March 2002) showed 4.6 percent GDP growth over the previous year and in total, the Wairarapa has 4700 businesses, of which 43 percent are in the primary sector.
Horticulture is the fourth largest GDP industry in Wairarapa, adding $51 million of value (once costs of production are deducted from the $136 million turnover), following sheep-beef ($96 million), retailing ($74 million) and dairying ($70 million).
A study commissioned by Go Wairarapa shows the wine industry is the big mover in Wairarapa horticulture, using more land, making more money and employing more people than other branches of horticulture.
The study also found that for using only 2 percent of rural land in Wairarapa, horticulture accounted for 5.5 percent of the region's economy in 2002.
Winemaking alone in Wairarapa has a $75 million turnover. Factoring in the flow-on effects of restaurants and visitors and the value in grape and olive growing, its total output value could be as much as $130 million out of a total of $203 million from horticulture in Wairarapa.
Winemaking employs 124 people and a further 234 through bottling, retail, storage and winery work and grape growing - making a total of 279.
That means 637 of the 1126 people employed either directly or indirectly in horticulture in Wairarapa are involved with wine and the wine industry is the only horticulture sector showing employment growth. While the proportion of horticultural land in wine has increased, the amount of rural Wairarapa land in horticulture has remained the same. Wairarapa's horticulture is also highly profitable for New Zealand - of a $136 million turnover, there was $99 million worth of exports.
It's great to see so many candidates in this year's District Health Board elections. This shows strong support for community involvement in health.
More than 500 nominations were received by the close of the nominations period a and each of the 21 DHBs, including Wairarapa and Mid Central, have between 13 and 41 nominations for the seven elected positions on each board.
Seventy-five percent of existing board members are seeking re-election, which is a vote of confidence in the DHB system. Boards are open to the media and community and are run democratically - a vast change from the secrecy of the 1990s.
The whole purpose of having a community voice in health is to ensure boards truly reflect the communities they serve. But this can only happen if groups put forward strong candidates and support them.
This year's DHB elections will be held using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, where voters rank their desired candidates in order of preference.
The elections will also use "at-large" structures where voters have a say in the election of all elected board members instead of just the ones that were in their ward or constituency.
Voting packs will start arriving in the post from September 17, with voting closing at midday on October 9.
For further information visit www.moh.govt.nz/dhbelections, call toll-free on 0508 9 10 2004, or contact your DHB.
Congratulations to our Police on the latest crime statistics.
There were 444 fewer victims of recorded crime in the Wairarapa Police Area last year.
Total recorded crime for the year to June 2003/04 in Wairarapa stood at 4098 offences, compared with 4542 last year.
That translates to 444 fewer recorded offences, or 8.5 fewer victims of recorded crime a week, a 9.8 percent drop over the previous 12 months.
At the same time recorded violent offending was down 12.9 percent, with 85.3 percent of violent crimes in the Area resolved.
Recorded drugs and anti social offences were also on the way down, down 17.5 percent, with 92.4 percent of these offences resolved, compared with the previous year. Fraud fell to 73 recorded offences from 139 the previous year, with receiving numbering 29 offences from 46 previously. Overall recorded dishonesty offences dropped 4.7 percent.
This is good news for Wairarapa.
|
|
|
