EIT Hawke's Bay grabbed the money from Study Link and run! students will be left with no qualification.

EIT student Rachael Diffey says:
30 September, 2013 at 4:02 pm

A very timely article – "I am a student at EIT and we have just been informed of a proposal to discontinue the Counselling stream of the Applied Social Sciences degree at the end of 2015. This will mean that currently enrolled part-time students and all those who commenced in the July intake (full-time or part-time) will be unable to complete their studies. EIT will have taken their money, most of which will be funded by student loans, and the students will not have a qualification to show for it. There are only two other providers of a Counselling stream; Auckland and Wellington, and they do not offer distance learning, ie students would have to relocate. This is unrealistic for students with families etc. The whole proposal is fundamentally unfair and I haven’t even touched on the social implications. Unbelievable.

Would you be prepared to support our submission opposing the proposal?"
http://teu.ac.nz/2013/09/eit-boss-pockets-50000-as-polytechnic-struggles/

EIT Hawke's Bay - Chris Collins gets paid more than the Deputy Prime Minister of NZ

EIT Hawke's Bay - Chris Collins gets paid more than the Deputy Prime Minister of NZ

Chris Collins is Chief Executive at the EIT - Eastern Institute of Technology, a large public sector tertiary education institution based in Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti.

EIT boss pockets $50,000 as polytechnic struggles

on 24 Sep, 2013 

EIT’s chief executive Chris Collins received a pay rise of between 14 and 19 percent in the last reported year, according to information released last week by the State Services Commission.
Mr Collins’ remuneration rose from between $290,000-$299,999 in the year June 2011-12 to between $350,000-$359,999 in the year June 2012-13. That is an increase of at least 14 percent.
Meanwhile staff at EIT received a pay rise last year of 1.3 percent – just one tenth that of their highly paid boss. Moreover, students saw their fees rise by up to 4 percent.
TEU’s national secretary Sharn Riggs says EIT has its priorities wrong.
“The polytechnic needs to invest the money in the people who need it most, not the people who already have the most.”
At the end of last year, the polytechnic lost a significant amount of money when the government cut level 1 and 2 course funding to polytechnics. EIT ran a deficit budget last year as a result and now, just six weeks ago the polytechnic told staff that it would have to find $2 million dollars to make its budget for next year tally. That will mean budget cuts and some staff losing their jobs.
“Government funding cuts are hard enough for staff and students, without EIT’s council making the situation worse by giving the equivalent of a whole salary’s worth of pay rise to its chief executive,” said Sharn Riggs.
“Mr Collins now gets paid more than the deputy prime minister.”
 n […]

 http://teu.ac.nz/2013/09/eit-boss-pockets-50000-as-polytechnic-struggles/

Here is a bright idea: free healthcare, free education, free child lunches - Wipe out child poverty

Protesting the GCSB bill

 

Napier 27 July 2013

Alliance supporters joined the protest against the spy bill.


Suggested reading
Posted on the Allianace webpages
28 June 2013 Dealing to Inequality Will Keep Us Safer than Mass Surveillance

Moving away from a fragmented approach to tourism

We all know we have a depressed economy in the Hawke's Bay, so the development of a higher standard of tourism strategies is a good idea.  The emphasis of tourism is often on consumption, however we should support social tourism that enables all working people to use their paid leave to travel and relax during their well deserved annual holidays. Therefore we need to develop the strategies to identify how we can ensure affordable holidays for everyone.

In the bigger picture I believe in the future of tourism in Hawke’s Bay. Building a strong tourism industry in Napier will create new  jobs. Currently tourism in the Hawke’s Bay is often supported by the good will of volunteers.  Generally people are not aware that the whole Faraday Science Centre in Napier is run by 15 volunteers including the former Napier mayor.

If we put a good transitional plan into action, with proper guidance and financial support it could change the face of the Hawke’s Bay.  It could also result in a tourism boom from which Napier could benefit.

Over the period of 25 years Napier has developed into the Art Deco capital of New Zealand.  Napier's history, architecture and annual Art Deco festival today help define the character of our town. The festival attracts a large number of  international visitors and it has become an enormous commercial success.  

It is worth mentioning that the well organized carnival in Rio de Janeiro is the one of the major events in Brazilian economy. According to the last year figures the 850,000 visitors to the Brazil annual festival in Rio contributed $628 million to its country's yearly tourism income of $3.2 billion. At our own scale, we could emulate this success.

Apart from Art Deco, developing ecotourism in Hawke’s Bay is important as well.
  

Hawke’s Bay has a very distinctive character, but to make the most of it we need to move away from fragmented approaches to tourism and have a more focused approach.

Supporting Land for Wildlife programme run by Forest and Bird

" Forest & Bird is piloting the programme as part of the "Kaimai Connection" -- a project to restore natural links from Tauranga Harbour in the Bay of Plenty to the Waihou River in the Waikato...This programme assists property owners to enhance wildlife habitat on their properties by providing expert advice, on-site visits and workshops" we read on Waikato.http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/projects/kaimai-mamaku-campaign/land-wildlife

Mary O'Neill said "It’s great to support the farmers to actively participate in the Land for Wildlife programme. Farmers also should be included in the various wildlife protection discussions where they can share the knowledge about the best practices and lessons learned.
Nearly 10 years ago when I was a student in Environment and Sustainability in New Zealand we were encouraged to make ourselves available to plant the native species on private farms and to identify the obnoxious plant species etc. It appears feasible for the majority of farmers to implement these strategies in an efficient and effective way".
 

National day of action against assest sales - Protest in Napier

Mary O'Neill and Jacky Scott Gray Power Napier

   

Alliance backs no asset sales actions

Protest in Napier on 27 April 2013

The people vented their rage against asset sales on Saturday, with chants of 'Hey John Key you've got mail, we don't want asset sales' and slogans 'Theift as a servant!" The public tooted their horns in agreement.
 In this  photo are   Jacky Scott from Gray Power Napier and Mary O'Neill 
Alliance Party Spokesperson for Napier.