HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Cr Jack Ruben speaks out

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF


Your biased editorial (Dompost April 29) on the Te Raekaihau Point proposals deliberately omits vitally important information, and leaves other questions unanswered.
Why not state that the $7 million dollar loan is interest free? The interest alone would be more than sufficient to save the mobile library being closed down! - and still leave funds for other more deserving projects.
What is the justification for public funding going into this private tourism venture? - and where do we draw the line? Hotels? Fishing trips? Seaplanes? Why not?..... the precedent has been set.
I believe most New Zealanders wish to preserve our natural heritage - intact. There are other suitable sites for such a venture. What happens to the buildings when it fails because the estimated visitor numbers are ridiculously over-optimistic? - as with the ill-fated V8 Race proposal. Will they be left derelict, or turned into expensive apartments? - or perhaps an oil company head office like the Queens Wharf Shopping Centre.
Where is the similarity in financial terms between this venture with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, (with which I am very familiar), when there are more people in the Monterey area and nearby cities than in the whole of New Zealand?
Not all Wellington City councillors "enthusiastically support" this venture. We are committed to encouraging more tourists into our area, but not at the expense of the environment - or the ratepayer.
Does project manager Grant Macaskill also believe native forests should be cut down, because they are wild, have roads traversing them, and maybe some derelict cars?
As Mandy Rice-Davies commented all those years ago about the late John Profumo "he would say that, wouldn't he"?

Jack Ruben.
Wellington City Councillor,
Onslow-Western Ward.

Ph: 476 5144
8 Pine Terrace,
Karori,
Wellington.