The Dom Post has a front page story about the need for additional funding for the Sanctuary to complete the Visitor and Education Centre. Â This issue has been around for a while, and was discussed in the open part of the AGM last month. Â My understanding is that there have been some geo-technical issues that the Council have been concerned about, and this had led to the need for additional work and therefore costs. Â The Sanctuary site does cause some specific problems for development, but the best engineers and designers have been on the job. I also understand that the Council will consider the matter shortly. Â Clearly this is not a great time for any further consideration of the matter by central government, but for my part I will continue to be a strong advocate for the Sanctuary at that level.Â
Archive for October, 2008
Backbenchers
October 30th, 2008After the forum last night I headed down to the Backbencher to check out my good friend and fellow Labour candidate Phil Twyford on Backbenchers I think the show is getting better all the time. It manages to be entertaining most weeks, and does put a different slant on politics.  I thought Phil did a great job last night, and it reinforced for me what a fantastic MP he will be in 9 days time.Â
I even managed to make a brief appearance ( just before the first break), giving the correct answer to the question of how long it took for Winston to make up his mind after the 1996 election, and earning myself a US $1 bill!! Hopefully its not Charter money 
On a different note, closer observers of the blog will note a slight change in tabs on right hand side of the page. We have a section entitled ‘What Others Say’. This is picking up some media and other quotes about me.  Inclusion in here of media quotes is not meant to imply any endorsement by the author, and hence we have changed the title of the section. My apologies to Colin and Audrey for any suggestion that their comments represented an endorsement.
Deaf Association Forum
October 30th, 2008
The Wellington Deaf Association held its election forum last night. Â It was an interesting evening. Â The questions focused around some key issues for the deaf community- in particular the availability of interpreters, educational and employment opportunities and captioning on television broadcasting. Â
Labour has worked closely with the deaf community over our term in government, with the major highlight being the passing of the New Zealand Sign Language Bill.  We have begun seeing some positive  results in terms of government agencies using sign language in terms of promotional material, but there is a long way to go.  A key area to look at next is how we can see more use of sign language by government agencies, in hospitals and at a local government level.  We also need to keep working on increasing the supply of interpreters.  At the moment there are 26 government scholarships available for the course at AUT, and hopefully there will be more to come.
It was clear that  captioning on TV was a major issue for those who attended.  This is an area where the TVNZ Charter could be used to see an improvement on the 20% of programmes that are currently captioned.  A harder area is the captioning of programmes on private television.  A possible option is a code of practice similar to that used for the playing of New Zealand music on commercial radio, which has proved so successful.
The only disappointing part of the evening was the no show from the National Party.  It was obvious that the community members present would have liked to have heard their perspective.  For my part I was keen to hear what Stephen Franks would have to say.  As an ACT MP he opposed the Sign Language Bill for some odd reasons.  He does not seem to appreciate the importance for members of the deaf community that their language has some official recognition.  The people he describes as a ‘privileged minority’, look and sound to me like a community standing up for itself and seeking the support and conditions so that they can make a full contribution to our society.
Alas, without Stephen or the National Party present, we did not get any further insight on his position, and the community are left with the impression that National is not concerned for them. Â For my part I am committed as Wellington Central MP to stand up for the diverse communities of this city, and to provide support so that they can fulfil their potential.Â
Wellington Central in the Listener
October 28th, 2008Jane Clifton has a piece on the Wellington Central race in this week’s Listener. Â As is the way with their website, the full story is not up yet. It is a nicely crafted piece, with Jane giving a pretty accurate depiction of the flavour of the seat ( ” a seat of bewildering contradictions”). It is nice to be picked by Jane as the favourite for the seat, but I am taking nothing for granted. The story does show that Stephen and I have something common. The story of him door-knocking Heather Simpson is re-told, with her suggesting he needed to up his game. It would be a safe bet that the withering look Stephen will have received that day is one I have some familiarity with after three and half years of working with Heather. It does tend to put you in your place!
Sustainability Forum
October 28th, 2008One of the issues that I have been banging on about everywhere on the campaign trail is sustainability. Â This is an issue I have been passionate about for many years. When I was a diplomat at the UN it was the issue that took up most of my time, including a spell supporting Simon Upton as Chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. Â While I think it is a great framework for looking at how we make decisions about development it can be a little amorphous. Â Getting past that was the genesis of a forum that my team organised this evening on what a sustainable Wellington would look like. Â Philippa Howden-Chapman from the Centre for Sustainable Cities spoke and an interested group of residents, mainly from the Aro Valley attended. Â Philippa focused on a transport as being the key to making progress in Wellington, in particular changing the way we think about how we use inner city roads, with more attention given to pedestrians and cyclists, improving affordability and reliability of public transport and focusing urban growth around transport nodes. Â It was a great discussion, and I strongly believe these are the kinds of issues we are going to have to work on if Wellington is to ecome a truly sustainable city.Â
