Opinion

Opinion: It staggers me that we still have the other Councils and some ICC Councillors wanting to keep the WasteNet tender open for the next 12 months. This tells me that they will then get their preferred tenderer in at the expense of those from Southland disAbility Enterprises who currently work t

The heart of the Stand Up For SIT campaign was to have the Education Minister Chris Hipkins hear Southland’s voice. To hear our cries of how much his Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) would damage Southland. Be heard, we said. We were heard. But no one listened. Thursday’s announcements from the

Opinion: It was the 13th of April 2018. The museum, an iconic location for Invercargill was closed to the public. Some staff was allowed to continue to work there, even though they had to close it due to a report received 5 years earlier. The report stated that some parts of the building was less […

This week has signalled the start of an exciting new chapter in our region’s development with Great South established to lead Southland into the future. In 2015 it was identified that in order to encourage Southland’s future prosperity a renewed focus was needed to grow Southland’s culture and lifes

Imagine what you could do with $30m. You’d make a significant difference in whatever area you spent that $30m in. With the right guidance, you might even be able to change the trajectory of a city. Invercargill ratepayers have the opportunity to consult on whether they’d like the Invercargill City C

What an absolute shambles Mondays’ extraordinary meeting was, to deal with the WasteNet issue. I presented a paper raising concerns and then sat and observed what I can only call a circus. The issue that ICC faces is that Invercargill City Councillors were split (needing the Mayor to cast a mayoral

Opinion: I am staggered that while Mayors Tong and Hicks repeatedly say they are still restrained by a tender process that has yet to be finalised (and had the WasteNet lawyer reinforce that) yet when they don’t like the ICC vote they feel free (1) to discredit ICC (2) to discredit SdE and it’s offe

Opinion: The great news is that by a one vote majority, ICC Councillors have voted that after the next elections, no Councillor can also hold a directorship in the Council owned HoldCo. This is a reversal of a previous vote. But before we think it puts to rest what many ratepayers see is a conflict