This article should be able to be read in mainstream news media so that everyone can access it easily, as Ani calls out the BS truthfully, without fear nor favour, for all to see clearly. We need more writing like this. Everyone is fed up with the shit, literally.
Let’s be totally clear, Tamatha Paul is DIRECTLY responsible for this environmental disaster.
While a councillor she led the charge against the recommendation from the WCC officers to prioritize ratepayers money for the sewage infrastructure.
Instead, she successfully lobbied the loony Labour and Green councillors to strip money from the vital sewage infrastructure and increase funding for more cycle ways.
Cycle ways that are rarely used in Wellington to due to its utterly deplorable weather but also have destroyed innumerable businesses due to taking over parking zones.
Thus it was only the technical, financial illiterate Labour and Green councillors who made
the decision to sacrifice essential infrastructure for a useless cycle ways, not a single right leaning councillor supported this outright sabotage on vital infrastructure.
When questioned about her duplicity and outright thickness in leading and lobbying against more funding for the Wellington sewerage system, Tamatha Paul screams RACISM and MISOGYNY which always stops the weak, pathetic MSM and others from reporting the facts.
Thankfully, Ani does not fall into that category, thus her continued reporting on the FACTS.
Another well thought through and informative article. These deflections happen all the time and as for main stream media? We made the call yesterday to stop watching either of the 6pm bulletins as they are full of biased nonsense, rather than factual reporting.
It was my "New Years Resolution" to cut all NZ MSM and its been gloriously refreshing.
I had cut some slack for Ryan Bridge, but I briefly watched him after the Grammys woke fest, and the couple of references to MAGA in a derogatory tone has made me switch him off too.
Option 3 was never a serious option once we saw this advice: “it is not our preferred
option because we do not yet have sufficient information to properly cost and direct our investment, and our growth plan is not yet at the stage where we can use it for
infrastructure planning.
We think more work is required to gather this data before such a sizeable investment is made.
There is substantial uncertainty regarding the ability to deliver
Paul is correct. We don't want people like her in positions of power (and they certainly aren't 'leaders'). The 'people like her' includes her fellow councillors voting to spend less on wastewater and more on cycle lanes.
That's not racist, nor sexist, nor anything else given the demographic mix. The only 'ist' it might be is leftist. Or stupidist (same thing really :-)). And, of that, I am perfectly OK.
To be fair, the real blame lies squarely with those who lack critical thinking and voted for them.
Great expose of the smokescreen that's been laid down by Paul and her supporters, by playing, totally predictably, the racism and misogyny cards. Those cards have lost their sheen in these more enlightened times, as people are sick of seeing them thrown at any attempt to sheet home accountability to where it belongs.
Having run a wastewater collection and treatment system for more than 20 years, I can say that catastrophic failure doesn't happen overnight (barring earthquakes and meteors). Wastewater system engineering is not rocket science, it's designed to be robust and redundant. A well-designed system with appropriate maintenance will last as long as the concrete it's made of. There is no excuse for what happened.
I was fortunate to have had support for the funds needed for operations and maintenance throughout my career, politics only intruded at the end when I was fired for refusing the vaccine.
All of us should expect to be held accountable for the consequences of the decisions we make. Those who stand for public office should expect to be held accountable to those who put them into office. Similarly, the electorate must accept responsibility for electing representatives whose agenda’s are reasonably well understood prior to election. How does the saying go?… You get the government you deserve! But, I await with interest to see if the Wellington Central electorate learn from this in November ‘26.
Thank you Ani, another well written account exposing the unbiased truth about how this situation has come about. Tamatha Paul has a lot of growing up to do if she wants to become a credible respected politician. Good on Nick Legget for accepting accountability and responsibility and owning it to the public of Wellington.
Tamatha said; 'thousands of people are continuing to jump on their bike more and more each day.' Really, Tamatha? In wet, windy, hilly Wellington? Wonder how she measured this, and not one councillor challenged her claim? Tamatha also said she is; 'deadly passionate about the environment.' Well...oops.
I suddenly got the impression that the wimpy councillors were afraid to challenge Tamatha's claims, her lack of evidence, and her connecting cycleways with climate change for three reasons; 1. She is Maori. 2. She is female. 3. She based her reasoning (without evidence) on climate change.
Thanks Ani for showing us the evidence I can now put in front of doubting friends who think the wastewater vs cycleways is just a right wing attack.
It will be democratically elected Maori leaders like Tania Tapsell and Moko Tepania that will help heal the divisive, racist damage done by Paul, Ngawera-Packer, Waititi, Whanau and their ilk. Elected on merit and responsible for their actions. Times will change for the better.
We need to stop giving oxygen to these racist, grifters and hold their feet to the fire. Time to get rid of Māori seats.
This is yet another graphic demonstration, if any were needed, of why the Greens must never be let near power in any capacity whatsoever. Helen Clark knew this, and during her time the Greens led by Fitzsimmons and Donald, were relatively sane, committed environmentalists. The current crop under Swarbrick and Davidson, are dangerous race-baiting Marxists who would destroy this country.
What Paul fails to understand is this sewage failure is culturally unsafe (to all cultures) and an environmental disaster for Wellington. No solutions are forthcoming, let alone from a Paul. She must resign.
This article should be able to be read in mainstream news media so that everyone can access it easily, as Ani calls out the BS truthfully, without fear nor favour, for all to see clearly. We need more writing like this. Everyone is fed up with the shit, literally.
Thank you Ani, many of us are heartily sick and tired of the "racist" tag being used to deflect from accountability.
Ani, yet another masterpiece.
Let’s be totally clear, Tamatha Paul is DIRECTLY responsible for this environmental disaster.
While a councillor she led the charge against the recommendation from the WCC officers to prioritize ratepayers money for the sewage infrastructure.
Instead, she successfully lobbied the loony Labour and Green councillors to strip money from the vital sewage infrastructure and increase funding for more cycle ways.
Cycle ways that are rarely used in Wellington to due to its utterly deplorable weather but also have destroyed innumerable businesses due to taking over parking zones.
Thus it was only the technical, financial illiterate Labour and Green councillors who made
the decision to sacrifice essential infrastructure for a useless cycle ways, not a single right leaning councillor supported this outright sabotage on vital infrastructure.
When questioned about her duplicity and outright thickness in leading and lobbying against more funding for the Wellington sewerage system, Tamatha Paul screams RACISM and MISOGYNY which always stops the weak, pathetic MSM and others from reporting the facts.
Thankfully, Ani does not fall into that category, thus her continued reporting on the FACTS.
Damn right.
Another well thought through and informative article. These deflections happen all the time and as for main stream media? We made the call yesterday to stop watching either of the 6pm bulletins as they are full of biased nonsense, rather than factual reporting.
Stopped watching TV news in 2020 when lies were obvious.
This was the same for our household.
It was my "New Years Resolution" to cut all NZ MSM and its been gloriously refreshing.
I had cut some slack for Ryan Bridge, but I briefly watched him after the Grammys woke fest, and the couple of references to MAGA in a derogatory tone has made me switch him off too.
Anni’s ability to objectively analyse is extraordinary and, therefore, I
highly value her commentaries.
She’s got her facts wrong. Officials recommended option 2 for water. Not option 3.
Yes, She said they rejected Option 3 - the better option.
Option 3 was never a serious option once we saw this advice: “it is not our preferred
option because we do not yet have sufficient information to properly cost and direct our investment, and our growth plan is not yet at the stage where we can use it for
infrastructure planning.
We think more work is required to gather this data before such a sizeable investment is made.
There is substantial uncertainty regarding the ability to deliver
such a large programme of work.”
Paul is correct. We don't want people like her in positions of power (and they certainly aren't 'leaders'). The 'people like her' includes her fellow councillors voting to spend less on wastewater and more on cycle lanes.
That's not racist, nor sexist, nor anything else given the demographic mix. The only 'ist' it might be is leftist. Or stupidist (same thing really :-)). And, of that, I am perfectly OK.
To be fair, the real blame lies squarely with those who lack critical thinking and voted for them.
Great expose of the smokescreen that's been laid down by Paul and her supporters, by playing, totally predictably, the racism and misogyny cards. Those cards have lost their sheen in these more enlightened times, as people are sick of seeing them thrown at any attempt to sheet home accountability to where it belongs.
Having run a wastewater collection and treatment system for more than 20 years, I can say that catastrophic failure doesn't happen overnight (barring earthquakes and meteors). Wastewater system engineering is not rocket science, it's designed to be robust and redundant. A well-designed system with appropriate maintenance will last as long as the concrete it's made of. There is no excuse for what happened.
I was fortunate to have had support for the funds needed for operations and maintenance throughout my career, politics only intruded at the end when I was fired for refusing the vaccine.
An illegal loss of job, as it later turned out. Yet, there are most of the same faces in the Opposition, hoping for re-election. Go figure.
All of us should expect to be held accountable for the consequences of the decisions we make. Those who stand for public office should expect to be held accountable to those who put them into office. Similarly, the electorate must accept responsibility for electing representatives whose agenda’s are reasonably well understood prior to election. How does the saying go?… You get the government you deserve! But, I await with interest to see if the Wellington Central electorate learn from this in November ‘26.
Thank you Ani, another well written account exposing the unbiased truth about how this situation has come about. Tamatha Paul has a lot of growing up to do if she wants to become a credible respected politician. Good on Nick Legget for accepting accountability and responsibility and owning it to the public of Wellington.
By crikey that was a super read Ani.
Tamatha said; 'thousands of people are continuing to jump on their bike more and more each day.' Really, Tamatha? In wet, windy, hilly Wellington? Wonder how she measured this, and not one councillor challenged her claim? Tamatha also said she is; 'deadly passionate about the environment.' Well...oops.
I suddenly got the impression that the wimpy councillors were afraid to challenge Tamatha's claims, her lack of evidence, and her connecting cycleways with climate change for three reasons; 1. She is Maori. 2. She is female. 3. She based her reasoning (without evidence) on climate change.
Thanks Ani for showing us the evidence I can now put in front of doubting friends who think the wastewater vs cycleways is just a right wing attack.
It will be democratically elected Maori leaders like Tania Tapsell and Moko Tepania that will help heal the divisive, racist damage done by Paul, Ngawera-Packer, Waititi, Whanau and their ilk. Elected on merit and responsible for their actions. Times will change for the better.
We need to stop giving oxygen to these racist, grifters and hold their feet to the fire. Time to get rid of Māori seats.
Excellent thanks Ani; I was unaware of it
Don't think MSM made a mention of this, to the best of my knowledge.....
Do you know if Tamantha ever attends Waitangi during the days when some pollies get abused and drowned out?
Surely she's close enough to the real world to realise she's applying a double standard....
This is yet another graphic demonstration, if any were needed, of why the Greens must never be let near power in any capacity whatsoever. Helen Clark knew this, and during her time the Greens led by Fitzsimmons and Donald, were relatively sane, committed environmentalists. The current crop under Swarbrick and Davidson, are dangerous race-baiting Marxists who would destroy this country.
What Paul fails to understand is this sewage failure is culturally unsafe (to all cultures) and an environmental disaster for Wellington. No solutions are forthcoming, let alone from a Paul. She must resign.