Some months ago I commented on Venture Hawke's Bay.

This is the organisation that started out as Hawke's Bay Inc.

It was set up about 5 years ago when the Hastings District Council, Napier City Council, and Hawke's Bay Regional Council all agreed to provide a further $200 000 each a year on top of the $200 000 each then being used to help develop our visitor industry.

The purpose of Hawke's Bay Inc is “to foster regional economic development”

It took nearly a year to find a chief executive who lasted less than a year.

After a significant delay, a second chief was appointed. He too departed right on 12 months.

The third chief Janet Takarangi, formally of trade and Enterprise then got the job. She has now departed as well but this time it has been announced no replacement would be appointed.
During her time in charge the organisation changed it's name from Hawke's Bay Inc to Venture Hawke's Bay and at the same time governance and responsibility for providing funding was taken over by the Regional Council.

Incidentally if you look at your regional council rates demand you can see exactly how much you are paying through the targeted rate.

In spite of the changes the organisation seems unable to function as might be hoped.

For the current year spending is at least $200 000 over budget.

A TV campaign that ran in October also attracted much criticism as did a new web site.

Now I am no expert on Venture Hawke's Bay but I have had some concerns from the outset. As a board member of Hawke's Bay Wine Country Tourism, a voluntary organisation set up to represent businesses involved in the visitor industry I have a little bit of experience in dealing with Venture Hawke's Bay.

I always had reservations with the people involved. To me they have had neither the experience or qualifications necessary to advance our position.

Somehow local political involvement always seems a problem. Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule clearly perceived a growing crises some months ago and resigned before the proverbial, hit the fan. Involving ratepayers has cost Hastings District Council at least $2 million.

It's now clear that in spite of some $7 million in total being spent, there is not a lot to show for it.

Three chief executives seems rather excessive. As each departed continuity has been lost so each new chief has had to start afresh.

Last time I expressed the opinion former Chairman Ross Bramwell was at least partly responsible but clearly he is not alone as over 12 months has now elapsed since his departure. The problems are apparently much deeper.

There is a need for a concerted effort to lift Hawke's Bay out of the mire, but before we even try to make a start we need to understand and accept our local economy performs near the bottom of all regions.

People are leaving the area faster than replacements are arriving meaning population growth is less than the rate of natural replacement, that is births over deaths.

Our population growth is only one third that of Auckland of Auckland and half of New Zealand overall.

We have high unemployment, low incomes, and poor health.

Our visitors numbers are less than 2 years ago.

Businesses leaving and not being replaced. Finding new businesses, new employees, and new opportunities is long term stuff.

Our economy is dependent on primary industries such as animals, forestry, apples and grapes and this is unlikely to change at least in the short term. While these are solid industries they are unlikely to give us the boost we need.

We must do very much better. Because if we do nothing things will just get worse. The problem is those in charge seem to have little relevant experience.

So how can we possibly move ahead when our political leaders only claim to fame is they have been political leaders. A former car dealer, school librarian, and a farmer are reasonable occupation but do not provide relevant backgrounds when it comes to driving the economy forward.

To my way of thinking they are far too comfortable, too well paid, and are over rated.

We have leaders with agenda's that have more to do with their own embellishment than bettering things for Hawke's Bay overall. Leaders also unwilling to stick their neck out and demand better things from government, but willing to waste huge amounts on projects that satisfy their egos while loading the community with millions of dollars of on going long term costs.