Andrew von Dadelszen Regional Councillor www.envbop.govt.nz

Your regional council is a pretty cost-effective organisation.

This is not because it has been effective in quelling wasteful bureaucracy (though this has improved greatly over the past six years), but because it is an effective manager of its funds. For every dollar we receive in rates, we also earn two dollars from our investment income, including the dividend income from our 55 per cent shareholding in the Port of Tauranga.

During this election cycle, don't be swayed by Tauranga City councillors who say the regional council should be disbanded and the port shares included in the city's coffers. This is rubbish. I, for one, am open to a good case for amalgamation (including at least Tauranga City, Western Bay District and BOP Regional Council), but to date no compelling case has been developed. Work does need to be done, especially in the city and Western Bay. But please don't use the port shares as a money grab, which it seems many city councillors would like to do. In 1989 your regional council received $44 million worth of port shares, and today that investment is worth over $508m. At a similar time Tauranga City sold off Tauranga Electricity to Trustpower for $46m, and what do they have today? Zip all! The regional council has now leveraged its port interests with a $200m preference share issue. So far we have spent $40m of this money on infrastructure, yet we still have over $206m from this transaction earning interest for you, the ratepayer. This is how we maintain our rates at an affordable level.

Here are some interesting facts about Port of Tauranga
• It is a Top 15 NZX-listed company, with a market capitalisation of about $925m.
• It moves 13.75m tonnes of freight annually (80 per cent more than its nearest rival).
• Its container cranes average 35.3 moves per hour (well ahead of all other ports in Australasia).
• It has 185 hectares of land (compared with Auckland's 70 hectares).
• It is the preferred option of the NZ Shipping Council to be the North Island's only deep water port, needed to carry the new breed of super container ships.

Senior port executives constantly say your regional council is a very good ‘cornerstone shareholder', which does not exert political pressure. That said, why would you when the port has been performing so well over the past 20 years.

If you have a view on these or any other matters relating to Regional Council issues, I invite you to email me so that I can represent you more effectively.

Email: andrew@vond.co.nz

Andrew von Dadelszen is a Tauranga constituency representative on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, chairing the council's transport committee.