Block on ratepayer’s email liftedReview sought of decision to bar contact with GDC.A Gisborne man has received an apology from the district council after he was barred from contacting councillors for being “unreasonably persistent”.The chief executive at the Gisborne District Council blocked Peter Millar’s email address on February 14, 2019, after staff raised concerns about his repeated requests for information about the Inner Harbour redevlopment. He was also blocked from commenting on the council’s Facebook page.Nineteen months after action was taken under the Unreasonable Complainant Conduct Policy, discussions between the council and Office of the Ombudsman have led to Mr Millar’s email address being unblocked, so that he can request a review of the decision.“I make no apologies for being persistent,” Mr Millar said. He was a marina berth-holder at the time.He had been emailing the council over a reduction in car parking at the Inner Harbour, and said he was stopped from further alerting councillors to “pertinent issues”.“This was just a smoke screen to cover the stuff that I had been trying to portray.”However, GDC internal partnerships director James Baty said it had 89 pages worth of correspondence with Mr Millar about the Inner Harbour, dating back to 2011, and despite being advised he was an unreasonable complainant on February 14, and being blocked from the council’s Facebook page, Mr Millar continued making contact with elected members and staff for another two months.“At this point his email address was blocked,” Mr Baty said.Mr Millar, who last year brought attention to a leaking roof on the almost $1 million public toilet at the Inner Harbour, said he had been “gagged” on the topic of the Inner Harbour. Being “blanket blocked” meant he was unable to email councillors on other subjects, but Mr Baty said he was advised that he could continue to access the council services.In a letter to Mr Millar dated September 29, the council democracy and support services manager Heather Kohn said blocking his email address had “inadvertently restricted” his ability to apply for a review of the decision, and for “normal interaction” with the council.“For this I apologise on behalf of council staff,” she said.The letter said Mr Millar would still be restricted from the council’s Facebook page, and staff had been told not to engage with him about the Inner Harbour marina, however he could request a review of the ongoing Facebook block by writing to the chief executive.“A fuller description of how you could continue to access full public services should have been provided, again apologies for this oversight and I hope you have not been inconvenienced too much,” she said.The council originally took action because it said Mr Millar was “repeatedly raising the same issues”, and he was unable to accept their responses despite numerous attempts.It said Mr Millar communicated inaccurate and “inflammatory” information through their social media channels, and used multiple channels to request the same information, made requests for information that was available on its website, and the resources allocated to dealing with his requests were expensive.“It does seem that there is an unwillingness or inability on your part to accept reasonable and logical explanations for the information that we hold. You continue to pursue and exhaust all available review options when it’s not warranted,” the council chief executive said in the original letter in February last year, noting its intention to block Mr Millar.Massey University local government and public management specialist Dr Andy Asquith said blocking a citizen from commenting was “not very democratic”, but it was not completely “black and white”.“In principle, it’s not the thing to do. There will always be someone who does not agree with the policies council has decided to follow,” he said.In this situation, it looked as if someone at the council had taken the view that this resident was a “pain in the neck”, Mr Asquith said.“In democracy we have freedom of speech. Pains in the neck, in my view, are to be celebrated and to be accepted.“If we start cracking down on people’s ability to say things, even though we might not like what they have to say, then that’s a very dangerous road to start going down,” he said.Mr Millar is in the process of applying for a review of the decision, but is not optimistic on the outcome.
EIT whanau fun day a hitThe whanau fun day, run by the United Students Association (USA) in conjunction with EIT, was a bit hit, as these photos show. USA student advocate and events coordinator Julie Walker said the annual event was a way to say thank you to the students and their families for a year of study. “At this time of year it boosts morale and wellbeing,” she said.
Rua joins NZX, hits $100mRua Bioscience debuted on the New Zealand stock exchange yesterday, becoming the only NZX-listed company headquartered in Tairawhiti and the first founded by a Maori community.Within the first hour Rua had reached a value of $100 million.The occasion was celebrated at an event at Uepohatu Marae in Ruatorea and a celebration at the NZX office in Auckland.Rua director and co-founder Panapa Ehau blew on a conch shell to mark Rua going live on the NZX at 11am.Manu Caddie, co-founder and kaihautu innovation and regulation at Rua Bio said the day had been a neat time just being able to reflect and celebrate.“It has been exciting to see the share price jump.”It started at 50c and had gone up to 70c within the first 10 minutes.“It’s good to see there’s strong support already.“We always had ambitions that it would become a successful company, we still have some way to go. This is another step, in many ways, to revenue and a really sustainable company.”There were a few more milestones for Rua Bio, Mr Caddie said.“There is the GMP pharmaceutical audits that have to be completed this year and then getting sample product sent to Germany.”Mr Caddie said, “it’s important to acknowledge local supporters who took the biggest risk early on, who have doubled their shares already.“We are all humbled by their support, it has been awesome.”Rua CEO Rob Mitchell said he was pinching himself.“I Joined in February, my first part of interaction was in October last year — that first interaction with Panapa and Manu and the rest of the board, I knew there was something special here.“I was blown away by their knowledge and understanding. I got hooked and here I am six months later.”It had been a significant day going on the stock exchange.“It’s a bit scary and a bit nervous, but it’s good nervous.”The day was about “celebrating the milestone and work we have done”. “It’s nice to see our name on the ticker board and know we are there and trading.”Panapa Ehau, co-founder and director, said it was a massively humbling experience being able to bring the NZ stock exchange to this whare in Ruatorea.“This is because of the men who fought and went to war to lay foundations to be able to do this.“All the excitement is setting in.“Right from the outset, no one had done this — I thought it was either brave or stupid to do it. So being able to do things like this is beyond our wildest dreams.“I am very happy today.“Rua’s community is at the heart of its journey and success, and it is important for us to acknowledge those people who have been there from the beginning; we have built community into the DNA of Rua, and are committed to continuing to attract more talent back to the region, and create economic development opportunities for Tairawhiti.”The listing follows a fully-subscribed Initial Public Offering this month that raised $20 million of new capital to fund Rua’s next stage of development, support the achievement of sustainable revenue and accelerate growth.Rua had an implied market capitalisation on listing of $70m based on an issue price of $0.50 per share.Twenty-five percent of shares were allocated through a priority offer for Tairawhiti residents, Waiapu Investments shareholders and other people closely associated with the business. About 86 percent of Tairawhiti and Waiapu applicants received their share application in full, with only those who applied for over $5000 of shares being scaled.Remaining shares were allocated to a small number of NZ institutions and to brokers on behalf of New Zealand retail clients.
On trackHeating up for music festival, wine and food.On track for the long weekend is the inaugural Longline Classic music festival. The event on Saturday coincides with the Labour Weekend food and wine festival but tickets to the one-day music festival at Makaraka racecourse sold out quickly.About 15 percent were snapped up by Gisborne party people. The bulk went to Auckland party people, organisers Kurt Barker and James Bristow told The Gisborne Herald in July.“We sold out really quickly,” says Barker.“We were granted an extension to the cap and sold out again. We didn’t expect this kind of response. No one in New Zealand can travel overseas so a trip to Gisborne is the next best thing.”The response to the Covid-19 pandemic means the organisers had to look within New Zealand for acts.“We got the opportunity for a New Zealand act to be in the top spot.”The eclectic line-up includes Church & AP, Flamingo Pier, Soaked Oats, Fairbrother, Zeisha, Summer Thieves, Witters + MC Crafty, No Cigar, Rothman Reds, and Tricky.The Sunshine Bass stage will be given over to electronica and drum and bass acts, while the Longline stage will rock to the sound of live acts that range from singer and songwriter Mitch James to Scribe.The weather is looking good for both the Longline Classic, and the wine and food festival, on Sunday.The MetService forecast is for a cloudy Saturday with a high of 24 degrees, Sunday is fine with a high of 25 while Monday brings back some cloud but the mercury remains at 25C.
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