Pulling Back the Curtain on Customer Service & Ethics in New Zealand

Watch Your Window Supplier & the Products They're Intending to Install in Your Home

Whether Contemptuous & Corrupt, Sheer Incompetent, Or 'All of the Above' You Just Prevented This (And Probably More Than One) Ratepayer from Exercising Their Legal Right to Vote

BAD, Tech On Road, VERY VERY BAD !! Did You Ever Hear of That Classic Retailer Ad, 'It's The Putting It Right That Counts' ? Obviously Not.

And so to the next instalment of the Masterton District Council's Malarkey . . .

Before You Vote for More of the Same Contempt from Your Local 'Elected Representatives', See If Any Care About YOU, the Ratepayer . . . Because When You Need Them, You Might Be Highly Disappointed.

'Where There Is No Vision, the People Shall Perish' . . . Proverbs 29:18

If I owned a retail business, I'd hire these two away in a heartbeat . . .

The Clown Show that Dominated Parliament on this Day . . .

Definition of 'Corruption' MUST Include Dishonest, Seedy, Cruel, Underhanded & Highly Damaging Practices of Ministers & Ministry Management and Personnel

When Will You Wake Up to the Biological Impacts of Your Wi Fi Router & Your Smart Phone etc . . . (and just so you know your editor isn't a hypocrite: I manage to live without both . . . yeah, WOW, eh?)

Taking It to the Powers That Maybe Shouldn't Be?

DIFFERENTLY ABLED . . . & Definitely Able and Willing to Expose the Decades-Long Incompetence, Malfeasance & Cronyism of Two Deeply Corrupt Government Agencies and Their Parliamentary Enablers. 

PRESS RELEASE JUST IN FROM THE NEW ZEALAND TAXPAYERS' UNION: Oranga Tamariki Dropping $1.97m A Year on 14 Comms Staffers

The level of service, the class with which it was offered, and the degree of goodwill was an unprecedented experience by someone (me) who has ridden taxis and limos in multiple countries.

Lessons Abound Here . . . If the Broader Retail & Hospitality Sectors Want to Learn Them

Editor's Opinion: Stuff Survey Shows Some Interesting (Alarming?) Results

The 'Public Service' YOU Pay For . . . the Way It REALLY Works Up the Top of the Tree

Upston's Active Greenlighting & Fostering of Her Ministry's 'Soft Kill' Culture Needs URGENT Challenge

When the Tail Wags the Dog . . . A Look Inside the Councillor/Management Power Dynamics of Local Government

Kiwi Citizen Journo 'Pigeon Post' Publicises Taxpayers' Union Rate-Capping Petition

This Citizen Journalist Does A Great Job of Pointing to the Wasteful Spending of Councils & the Number of Ludicrously Over-Paid Council Staffers

Have You Noticed the Standard-Wording Template Used by Corporations & Government Agencies in Response to A Complaint (or A PR Disaster)?

New Water Entity on the Horizon for the Greater Wellington Region

You live in an idyllic rural valley . . . and you're about to find this big bastard looking down over your property. Nice.

Today, I bring you the second instalment of my three-Part ‘up close and personal’ interview with Mayor Grant Smith of Palmerston North. In this segment of our interview, Mayor Smith talks about the relationship ‘that could be’ (and, he feels, should be) between the cities, towns and regions of the Lower North Island. He discusses the potential for the key population centres to pool resources and efforts in a broader inter-regional local government collaboration initiative. He’s particularly enthusiastic about what an inter-regional tourism industry could look like. 'Palmy' Mayor Moots 'Platinum Triangle' for Lower North Island The Lower North Island – “If we include New Plymouth and Napier” in this broad collective of regions – contributes 24 percent to the total Gross Domestic Product of New Zealand. “We’re talking about 26 different Councils in that geography,” Mayor Smith says. “If you look at the often very complementary industry bases across that broader area, you can see that there’s serious scope for a variety of forms of leverage. “Those leverage opportunities are commercial, civil, logistical, social . . . the list goes on. And we’re not capitalising on them to any real degree at all.” As a more narrowly focused example, he points to the relationship between Palmerston North and Wellington. Or perhaps more accurately, the lack of one. “If we look north for examples, Palmerston North should, on multiple levels, have a similar relationship with Wellington, as Hamilton has with Auckland,” says Smith. “But we don’t. “Wellington should be using us as their food basket, as their distribution and logistics centre, and as a workforce resource pool. "The Manawatu region supplies 30 percent of New Zealand's vegetables. Meantime, the wider Manawatu-Wanganui region is the country's sheep and beef capital, with all the major meatworks companies represented here. And there's the greatest concentration in the Southern Hemisphere of food scientists and innovators; over 3100 individual specialists. "Palmerston North is well-known for its logistics and distribution hubs, with its strategic central location. It's home to automotive, food and Defence suppliers. "And with good transport links and a daily commuter rail service, the capital should be tapping more actively into the skilled workforce we can help supply." Why Don’t We Create A Lower North Island ‘Tourism Mosaic’? “Also, in a wider sense, there’s a substantial – and also currently very much going-to-waste – opportunity to be profiling the lower North Island as a collective for tourism. “If we stop looking through just ‘the eyes of locals’, we can see so much variety and complementarity, in terms of tourism attractions between the regions. “We’ve not only got Wellington as the entry point, but everything that sits south of Taranaki and right across to Hawkes Bay, and then down and right across to the Wairarapa. There’s wineries, mountains, rugged coastlines and gushing rivers, sports, arts and culture . . . the list goes on. “It’s a gold mine from a tourism perspective – if you look at it collectively, and without the parochial lens that often comes with having lived in a specific region your whole life.” ‘The Platinum Triangle’ Smith calls this greater collection of regions the ‘Platinum Triangle’, with tongue-in-cheek reference to the oft-dubbed ‘Golden Triangle’ of Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga. “We should be supporting each others’ natural strengths, and from a wider profile and tourism perspective, be a collective of population centres working together; creating a rock solid, vibrant, large-scale, Lower North Island ‘mosaic’. “Think how much more easily that sort of inter-linked, co-ordinated approach would make it to attract both investment and population growth. “And, especially in the current economic climate, we need that for our hotels and the broader hospitality sector.” On that note, back to Wellington: “We need Wellington and Wellington needs us. “Not only are they our biggest city and our Capital, they’re the Platinum Triangle’s inter-island linkage.” Smith says that, several years ago, he went down to Wellington on a very specific mission to seek out an audience with its tourism gurus in the government and local government sectors. “I put it to the Wellington mayor of the day. I said, ‘Guys, why don’t we do this thing together? The Women's Rugby World Cup, for example. Why don’t we do a bid together? Let Wellington lead and we’ll play a strong support role.’ “But they turned around and left us at the altar! They tried to win it alone – and completely failed and handed the victory to Northland and Auckland." Smith says that was just one of a good number of valiant attempts he’s made at inspiring joint initiatives over the years, but each has “failed big time” to get the tourism powers-that-be down in the Capital, on board. “They won’t accept that there are other cities on their doorstep, that offer scope for a wonderful collaboration . . . not even now, of all moments in time, when we could help them back up and out of this ditch they’ve fallen into. “They’re like a top-level sportsperson who’s in a real form slump and lost confidence,” he says. “The whole thing is fixable but they need to look in the mirror. “Just like ( with reference back to Part One of our interview ) they need to listen to their residents and their key sectors, including the business sector, they need to listen to partners and would-be partners, like other councils. “But they’ve got this attitude that, “We’re the big brother and you’re just a pimple.’ The Lost Wisdom of Bygone Eras “Right back as far as 150 years ago, the Wellington/Manawatu railway company saw the potential, and was instrumental – in the railways era – in making connections in many more ways than one . . . supporting a vibrant inter-regional tourism picture; just one example of the lost wisdom of bygone decades. “But there’s an arrogance today that’s unnecessarily holding Wellington back . . . and its timing is very bad right now, especially. "Wellington can’t be everything that we can all – collectively – be. “They don’t have the mountains, they don’t have the wine industry, they don’t have the rolling farmlands, and they don’t have the rural aspect that New Zealand is internationally known for. “Sure, they’ve got the creative sector . . . but, as special and unique as that is, such as with the spectacular World of Wearable Arts . . . our collective offering is so much greater.”

Dirt-Biked-Out, Toxic-Smoked-Out & Stag-Testicles-in-the-Letterboxed-Out . . . It's Not What Your Rights Are In A Small Town Like Dannevirke (Nor What the Resource Management Act Says), It's WHO You Know . . . Or, In My Case, Who I DIDN'T.

PRESS RELEASE JUST IN FROM NEW ZEALAND TAXPAYERS' UNION

AI Expert Delves Into the Ethics Concerning the Sourcing of Data that 'Feeds' LLM Models

Shame . . . ALL the Cretins Who Were Involved in Wilfully Destroying this Dedicated Healthcare Worker's Life . . . AND to the Politicians Who Pulled the Infamous "5D's" Stunt to Ensure Her Story Never Saw Light

Seems to me, you'd have to be a very special sort of a cretin to work for an outfit like this . . . IMHO

Early Feedback Shows Strong Support for Proactive Pursuit of Strategic Collaboration

‘Palmy’ Special Feature Series with Regional & Industry Leaders

Hey PowerCo: I Do NOT Appreciate You Giving Out My Email Address to Research Companies . . . Especially Those Who Treat YOUR Customers with Utter Contempt (& Spam Them)

Why You Should Teach ALL Employees to Value Your Brand

Ministry of Social Development Employee Sprays Around A Client's Private Information, then Sends It to A Journalist 

Learn the Plays & Ploys of New Zealand Government Agencies to Beat Them At Their Own Sordid Game Since starting 'The Customer & The Constituent' back in January 2024, I've been learning things about the New Zealand political scene as it relates to Ministers and their Ministries (or agencies or bureaus), and also the behind-the-curtain Parliamentary machinations related to them. Things I almost wish now that I didn't know. But they're things that, for better or for worse, ALL New Zealanders should know, about the way the New Zealand Government and its "public service" really operates. If you don't know how things operate in reality (not just the PR fluff on their websites) in some of these big-name agencies that we are forced to deal with in one way or another, at some time or another, depending on the need or issue you're attempting to have solved or resolved, you could go around in ever-increasing frustrating circles for weeks, months and even years. Before getting absolutely nowhere . And the worst part is: That's the intention . The 5 D's 1) Delay 2) Defer 3) Deny 4) Defend 5) Dismissed They're largely self-explanatory, but it's an absolute playbook that they stick to, and apparently senior agency bureaucrats and Ministers and their staff are taught this as a rite of passage into parliamentary and career public "roles" . . . and then are sworn to secrecy over it, in a manner that almost has "Eyes Wide Shut" secret society overtones to it. You NEVER refer to the '5 D's' outside of the walls of inner sanctums. However, I'd add two more "D"s to their list: The sixth: Deaf (as in, Ignore). The seventh: Dumb .. And oh my goodness, let me count the ways (which I will do in further articles in this Series, in specific, detailed and named examples). So between your introduction herein to the 'D's', and my ongoing and, I hope, enlightening, series for your continuing and essential edification regarding How Wellington Really Works, I trust that you'll end up knowing how to deal with this sordid scene in a more strategic manner, for a less infuriating time, and maybe even with an outcome. Although there's no guarantee that any "outcome" won't be no outcome. Because that's almost always their intention. Oh, and I do hope that my pieces actually do become an ongoing series, because they do "hit men" (of sorts), too. Yeah, really. Paid generously (with your money, by the way) to "remove" "difficult" ( their words; not mine) individuals. Like me. Stay tuned. See you again shortly. I hope. (PS: I think a feel a book coming on.) COMING NEXT : A drill-down on each of the 'D's. And next up after that: The detailed argument I'll put to the private sector on why hiring an ex-bureaucrat is a very bad idea ( Hint: You might think it gives you in-house lobbyist power and back-door influence, but the price you'll pay is the '5D' customer service anti-culture they'll foster throughout your organisation. Even IF you keep them away from the frontline, it will happen by osmosis anyway. And faster than you think. The worst part? The longer you keep them, the more irreversible the damage they'll seed in your culture. Which then hits your brand. And so on. So, to C-suites everywhere, this will be a read you NEED .

Thousands Sign Up to 'Better Wellington' Movement, Seeking Urgent Cessation to Unaffordable Rates, Economic Decay and 'Wrong Direction' of City Council

To the Silly Old Placard-Waving (& Terrorist-Supporting) Fools . . . As Seen Daily On the Corner of Chapel & Perry Streets in Masterton

Being Known As the Woman Who Introduced 'C---' into the New Zealand Parliament, Wasn't A Smart Long-Term Strategy

Cheap Trumps Standards, Ethics & Compassion . . . Apparently

A Massive Upside IF It's Done Right . . . and An Unrecoverable Downside It It's Not

There's A Whole Different Way to Conduct Polls & Opinion-Gathering that Deserves Investigating

AI & Robotics Expert Provides Commentary on Skinny's New 'Brand Ambassador'

Well, THIS Is Fair, Isn't It?!

Err . . . No Conflict of Interest Here, At All?

You Know It's Bad When Even Mainstream Medical Journals Are Forced to Report On It

More on the BUPA international chain of houses-of-horror . . .

I've Been Tracking Abuse-in-Aged-Care-Facilities for A While Now . . . and Something HAS to Be Done About this Almighty Horror Show

I'm SO Glad I Manage to Survive Without A Cell Phone . . .