Petition
20111005 To supporters of Save Our Rail Northland : Petition handover (today ) and documents quashed under the Official Information Act
Kia ora to everyone interested in ensuring the future of Northland's rail transport infrastructure.
Green Party Transport Spokesperson, Gareth Hughes presented the petition to Save the Northland to Auckland railway Line at Parliament from 12.30 today ( 5th of October 2011)
Save Our Rail Northland's spokesperson Vivienne Shepherd spoke on behalf of the 12,000 + people who signed the petition on some of the reasons why we are concerned about the proposed 'mothballing' of our strategically essential rail infrastructure.
It is extremely concerning that the 2009 Ministerial Briefing on Oil Prices and Transport Resiliance and the Bolland Report ( see attached) which was commissioned by the Ministry of Transport in April 2010 to provide independant advice on the costs and benefits of road vs rail for freight transport which concluded that rail is more efficient than road, were both quashed under the Official Information Act later in 2010.
Many voters will find it very concerning that these and other significant documents relating to the National Party's approach to the provision of transport infrastructure, energy, environment and health, have been obfuscated from public scrutiny .
It also calls into question the National Party's unwillingness to provide leadership in dealing with the strategic inevitabilities that all New Zealanders are going to have to face - in what is now defined by the International Energy Agency as the 'post peak / cheap oil age'.
The International Energy Agency, of which New Zealand is one of 28 sponsor nations, recently completed a study of 800 of the world's oil fields to quantify production potential and in May 2011 reversed their previous forecasts, now concluding that peak oil actually occured in 2006 and that 'the age of cheap oil is over'.
Consequently governments around the world are being warned to urgently reduce their vulnerability to increasing fossil fuel prices and oil shocks.
The maintenance and extension of our rail infrastructure networks is consistant with the IEA's advice.
Alan Preston ( Mangawhai, Northland )
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Convenor: Viv Shepherd:@ Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand
e-mail: vivshepherd@clear.net.nz
Mobile: 021656605
or contact Alan Preston in Mangawhai, Northland
Mob:+64 02102377242
Tel: +64 9 4315389
e-mail @ e-mail:saveourrailnorthland@gmail.com
web-site: http://www.saveourrailnorthland.org.nz
see also: www.thewayforward2011.org.nz
We have until the 31st of August 2011 to get the petition back in.
The population of Northland is 157,300 . Whangarei's population according to 2010 estimate was 51,000.
We are not restricted to collecting signatures from only the Northland Region.
The North Auckland Line runs through the Auckland Region and its closure has implications for people living in the southern Kaipara and Waitakere
areas .
There will also be a large number of people who'd like to sign the petition but who are not potentially directly affected by the line's closure.
We need a strategy to ensure that we maximise the number of signatures.
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20th of May 2010
I am finding that folders in shops etc. are a very effective way of getting signatures.
Originally asked Morgan Electrical, Fencing Services and Arnold Franks, all of which agreed.
Today picked up about ten completed forms from these businesses and left more forms.
The Museum at Maunu agreed today to take one, and I'll get it to them in a day or two.
People seem to be falling over each other to sign, once they know the story. But a surprising lot still have not got it. If anyone else wants to try this with concerns they deal with: Manilla folder, sheet as att. stapled in to left hand side, pen on string att. at top. Forms inside. I can supply some folders.
Ken and I have had just one refusal each so far among a lot of people approached personally.
Regards.
John Rawson
johngrawson@hotmail.com