Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

The rugby was fantastic and it has done much to bring New Zealand together.

The oil spill revealed that the people of the Bay were capable of working together and addressing problems with determination. This new found self belief will be needed if we are to meet the challenge of Global Financial Crisis fallout in the Bay.

There are many reports from across the world of protests telling similar stories, of governments that are broke, the rich getting rich, the poor getting poorer and the death of the middle class. Some of the protests are being dismissed as selfish and having no agendas, but that doesn't alter the fact that countries are deeply in debt with very little chance of recovery.

We are a small island and dependent on trade for our way of life and standard of living. What will happen in New Zealand? We see the signs already. If we do get angry and put our gumboots on to sort things out, where do we start? Last week, I quoted an Italian economist who forecasted our current situation, but he also had a surprising twist for New Zealand.

He and many others believe that there will be a shift in financial leadership of the world from Europe to Australia and especially to New Zealand.

He quoted our unique working relationship with China and India and he outlined the unusually high representation of New Zealanders around the world who are recognised as pragmatic, trusted and respected. I heard this from others. In Prague, a manager of an international pharmaceutical company gave us a long lecture on what we had to protect in New Zealand and he also believed that New Zealand would be the last outpost of not just the British, but the whole European way of life. Where does the Bay fit into these grand plans?

The Bay of Plenty is the most vulnerable to the coming changes. Psa is an obvious problem at the moment, but it is only taking attention away from more underlying problems for our local economy. The Productivity Commission notes that in times of affluence, people move out to lifestyle blocks in the country and in hard times they go back to work in the city.

In the Bay it is the other way round, the Walton's Effect. This movement to the country in hard times is consistent with reports from Europe of people returning to the farms to guarantee some form of subsistence farming to help them weather the economic downturn. Local farmers here are diversifying for the same reasons, but our District Plan is designed to discourage this form of land use. Already, because of the Psa problem, it was suggested to council that they should allow these smaller lifestyles as they have done in the past to cope with an earlier downturn. But Council is totally opposed to any more subdivision of farms. The current rating system takes into account value of trees, stock and improvements and a basic multi-use Walton's lifestyle block is generating unbelievable rate demands.

Council isn't going to help us. The government is aware the Bay has problems, but welfare solutions are only compounding our problems. Mindless protest will not help. I suggested last week that we are going to have to get angry and arrive with our gumboots and work together if we are going to avoid the problems occurring in other countries. What is different this week? Many believe that the World Cup has brought us together. If anyone doubts this, what do you think it would have been like if the French had gone off with the cup? Where do we start? I will be offering ideas for positive action next week.