Mayor rejects party politics
Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith is encouraging voters to keep party politics out of the city council.
Smith used part of his speaking time at Tuesday’s council-hosted lunchtime event to meet the mayoral candidates to ask people to ‘‘vote wisely’’.
The mayor of 18 months faces just one challenger, a former pig farmer with convictions for assaulting children, Ross Barber, who is standing for ‘‘Team God’’.
Barber claimed to be God, to be emperor and landlord, and said he could print money. He accused Smith of being mad, and council staff and various institutions of being corrupt and disgusting.
Barber struggled to fill his speaking time, leading to calls from the audience of about 50 for him to sit down and blow his nose.
Smith used most of his time to outline his achievements as mayor. He canvassed his introduction of ‘‘meet the mayor’’ sessions and councillor portfolios.
He said he had fought for a friendly parking system, promoted the city as a central logistics hub, and led the council out of court over challenges to its wastewater management and discharge to the Manawatu River.
Palmerston North was doing well, but needed to be more ambitious, striving to be New Zealand’s best provincial city, which people were proud of, he said.
His catch-cry was ‘‘a head for business, a heart for the community and passion for Palmerston North’’.
Smith then turned attention to the councillor election, where 28 candidates are standing for 15 seats, with three sitting councillors retiring.
The Greens have put forward one candidate, Brent Barrett, while Labour has endorsed Zulfiqar Butt, David Chisholm, Sheryll Hoera and Lorna Johnson.
Smith was worried party politics would cause divisions, pointing to the experience of Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington councils.
‘‘I’m not standing on any political party card and am very much centre in my values and views,’’ he said.
Smith said Palmerston North had no desire for central government ‘‘party-led meddling’’ in local government.
‘‘I urge voters to look at candidates’ personal attributes, what they support, their track record, and whether they are independent or not, and then, at who would genuinely be putting our city first.’’
Smith was challenged by a member of the audience to explain the ‘‘blot on your term as mayor’’ that was the failure of Progressive Enterprises to gain council consent to build the Pioneer Countdown supermarket.
Smith said he had inherited that problem. Through talks with Progressive he believed the parties had moved much closer and there would be a positive outcome.
This last play of Ibsen’s is now having its first-ever performances in New Zealand by the Walking Shadows company.
Director/actor Iris Henderson’s directing debut for the NZ Fringe Festival, the play had the advantages of being out of copyright, having a small cast and it had not recently been performed. But, ‘‘it was incredibly dark, dense and theatrically impossible’’. So, she and assistant director/actor Catriona Tipene managed the miracle of whittling the weighty, repetitive script and outdated language down to a crisp one-hour production in just three days. The result keeps the melodrama, but in a fresh, watchable way as interpreted by its feisty young cast. Arnold (Ryan Cundy), is a famous artist/sculptor who feels his creative soul died when his muse Irina (Tipene) left him. Arnold takes his new wife Maia (Henderson) on a trip to the mountains, where, feeling stifled and unloved, she turns to Ulfheim (Tom Kereama) for a bit of adventure.
When Irina unexpectedly reappears, he hopes to rekindle his genius but Irina is changed.
In this story of unexpressed love and misunderstanding, the actors deliver a tight, pacey performance, modern-looking but not set in any recognisable time or place, with atmospheric music (sometimes a bit intrusive) and minimal props. Kudos to them for an unusual choice, well executed.