Maru mo te iwi Forestry Project

Tu Tangata, Issue 31, 1 August 1986, Page 38

Maru mo te iwi Forestry Project

A personal view from Tim Shadbolt

I was elected into office in October 1983 on a very general policy of more democracy, less bureaucracy and better communication. The only specific promise I made to electors was that I would tow my concrete mixer behind the Daimler. I fulfilled this promise in the Henderson Santa Parade.

After being elected as Mayor however, only a very small percentage of Councillors decided to support me. So that even if I had had an extensive policy platform, it would have been virtually impossible to carry it out. However, in many ways this lack of policy and lack of power gave me tremendous freedom and flexibility. I was able to observe every issue, and I’ve had time to see what major problems face our City, and what my priorities would be for solving them. It would have been very easy for me to define my role as Mayor along the traditional definitions of Local Government. Roads, rates, rats and rubbish plus a few drains and parks.

Political boundaries between Central Government responsibilities, and Local Government responsibilities are changing rapidly. Local Government is either being given or is taking over a wider a wider range of responsibilities, and if you believe in the de-centralisa-tion of power (which I do), then this movement is to be encouraged. Local Government is now playing a major role in such traditional Government areas as law and order (Neighbourhood Watch), recreation and sport (administration of grants and providing of halls, parks and sports facilities), Social Welfare (Community Officers) and earthquake and flooding emergencies (Civil Defence) just to name a few.

Local Government in New Zealand is also expanding in such diverse areas as land development, forestry, community health and housing. If we develop a home guard system of defence rather than relying on a nuclear deterrent, then Local Government could even be involved in this sacred area of Central Government control.

I decided therefore, considering the changes that are taking place, that my definition of my role as a Local Government leader, would not be determined by the traditional historical definition of Local Government, but would be determined instead by the NEEDS of the community. After two to three months in office, a pattern began to emerge. Although I faced dozens of issues concerning potholes, barking dogs, blocked drains, noxious weeds and delayed building permits, I was even more overwhelmed by the

HE RERENGA KORERO

approaches made by numerous sporting clubs, social clubs and community organisations who desperately needed support. At times I felt almost overwhelmed by the enormous number of jobs that seemed to need doing around the City. Every organisation seemed desperate in their needs, and presented excellent cases as to why they in particular should be supported.

It is under the stress of constant demands, that Civic leaders are finally forced to work out priorities. Of all the problems and issues that came into my office, those that I found most personally disturbing and depressing situations, were those families looking for housing. Every week it seemed that at least one desperate family would come into my office pleading for a house. Insecure children clung nervously to their parents as they surveyed the palatial surroundings of the plush Council offices. I began to hate hearing the words myself as week after week I continued to repeat Council policy on housing. “Waitemata City has no Council flats or houses available to lease or rent. All I can do is inspect your present living conditions and write a letter on your behalf to the Housing Corporation.”

I watched their resigned despair as they left yet another plush public office and returned to their tin garages or crowded caravans. Some times I would visit their “homes” and see the conditions under which these families lived. In a computer age of science, sophistication and interplanetary discovery, it’s difficult to believe that families in West Auckland were living in such extreme poverty and despair. A family in Kelston, a pregnant wife, husband working for SIBO a week, four young children, a dirt floor with carpet laid over it, the children wheezed the bronchial cough of poverty. Even the suburban houses that looked so neat and tidy, a mown front lawn a normal facade, but inside I would find eight adults, twelve children piled into bunks in the lounge, always so polite offering a cup of tea and biscuits, putting on a brave face and thin smiles, to cover the quiet anguish of their reality. For these families there is little hope. Their children will cost the State thousands of dollars in future health care, welfare and judicial costs. It just seemed all so depressingly inevitable, and again I would hear the sickening sound of my own voice, almost mocking them “Housing is a Government responsibility. I’ll write to the Housing Corporation. Perhaps you should visit your M.P." But in most cases they didn’t even know who he was. But they did know me, and I know there’s already 400 families on the housing Corporation waiting list, it’ll only be at the expense of some other family, who are often equally as distressed.

And so I decided to list clearly my

priorities for our community as I saw them.

1. Food and Shelter. Without food and shelter you die either of hunger or exposure.

2. Aroha. Love and hope, for the spirit must also be nourished.

3. Jobs, health, hygiene, education, transport, roads, recreation, sport, leisure. Yes, these are all jobs that are worthy and need doing, but in terms of priorities, I believe that every West Auckland family is entitled to decent shelter and healthy food.

The second group of people that seemed to come into my office were young. Young people looking for meaningful work, sacked P.E.P. workers, or those too young to get on the dole, all searching for something. Some were rebels who rejected the boredom of a nine to five routine. Others were idealists looking for a mission in the new liberated City of Waitemata. There seemed to be thousands of dissatisfied alienated youths just hanging around looking for something to do. There are 2,000 registered unemployed in West Auckland, and perhaps another 2,000 who are unregistered. Up to 500 others were working on Council Control P.E.P. Schemes and some were lucky enough to be taught a few basic skills, but others ended up in demoralising depression-type jobs cutting gorse that a rotary slasher could have done in a few hours. In some cases the gorse wasn’t even sprayed after it was cut, so that this tortuous pruning job simply ensured it grew better the following year. Many Councils simply used P.E.P. workers as a form of cheap labour, and the majority use them for recreation or work schemes that seldom provided shelter or food for those in the community who were in difficulty.

Many of the jobs the unemployed worked in were to provide recreational facilities or environmental beautification which would help those in the community who were advantaged enough to be able to enjoy them. And so over the months I gradually began to

realise what a perfect combination of problems we had in West Auckland. High unemployment and a desperate housing shortage. The next step was to try and organise a system of community housing using the unemployed. I carefully monitored the Manukau City Council Community Housing Project, and was most impressed by the carefully worked out system and the experimental model house they actually built. At present they are constructing a housing workshop where future home owners will be involved in the building of their own home. The project is an impressive one, but could be handicapped by limited Council and Government support.

My own scheme in Waitemata involved trying to get control of the raw materials. I want to go back to the tree and develop (1) forestry projects (2) our own sawmills and (3) finally, our own housing workshops.

At present we are only at the experimental stage of this project, but already the prospects are looking exciting. While hundreds of forestry and mill workers are being sacked because of the computerisation of sawmills in the Tokoroa area, I believe there will be an upsurge in small, low technology, community orientated timber projects. Thousands of acres of pinus radiata were planted during the Depression by our unemployed grandparents, and I believe it’s imperative that some of this timber should be returned to those who are facing unemployment as a result of the technological revolution. So much of the timber planted by these Depression workers is now being shipped to Japan as wood pulp and turned into Honda adverts and fired back at us.

I believe that this project will lead to a change in policy throughout New Zealand regarding the use of unemployed workers, and I believe it will lead to a change of priorities regarding essential work that needs to be done in the urban communities of New Zealand.