Letters to the Editor

As one who has been an absent owner at the Heads for years enjoying what it offers, I’ve invariably equally looked forward to picking up a copy of the Focus when published from its inception.

Last weekend I stumbled upon a bundle of Focus’ placed where I was and gave it a sideways glance thinking it must have been one that I’d already seen being that it was Sunday the 27th.

Because of the headline story on looking closer the publication was dated 28th January. That was as you are aware a Monday, for Auckland a public holiday. I stand to be corrected here but from recollection hasn’t the Focus always been released on a Thursday?

I raise this because only three days earlier I’d had communication with Commissioner John Robertson in which, from a query on what numbers are paying rates, his response was the council were doing a survey and the numbers would be released in a week or so in a public notice.

Was this coincidence that the Focus happened to be published for a Monday with the headlines of the council’s survey?

It would be a mistake to assume that the 74.6 percent of Kaipara ratepayers who have paid their rates are happy about the situation – and more than an even bet that the majority are still very concerned about matters and are only paying their rates because of fears of facing penalty payments and also the inbred instinct of most citizens to comply 'with the law'.

It should be noted that the Commissioners have requested ratepayers pay their rates before Audit New Zealand completes its studies into why it failed to detect Kaipara's financial problems.

The Audit Office report was promised to be completed by October 6 last year and now will not be completed until March. Why the delay?

Would you buy into a company, or maintain hire purchase payments, or rent something that had a dodgy audit record? Of course not.

The government should have put up bridging finance to cover for the Audit Office failures, and keep the bankers happy and only after the audit problems have been sorted should ratepayers be asked to pay up.

It’s quite possible that many who have paid up their rates will vent their spleen at the ballot box next year if there is a grossly unfair outcome to all of this.