Diversity not represented in local government

NEW Zealand’s diverse population is fairly well represented in Parliament while local government continues to be overdominated by ‘‘pale, stale’’ males. This is most evident in those local government areas in the South where the firstpastthepost system has been retained.

It concerns me greatly that in this district (Waitaki) only voters who reside within the Waihemo Community Board boundary will have an equal number (or more) of females than males to represent them.

Thirtynine percent of those who were elected on to local bodies nationwide at the last local elections were female (ODT, 15.8.22).

Even if every female who stands in Waitaki district is elected this year the council will not reflect the gender balance of the local population (50.8% of which were female in the 2018 census).

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the disengagement of people from local politics.

The $200 deposit will deter some from standing. It also isn’t surprising that few women candidates are willing to stand when they are likely to receive a hostile response from some members of the electorate. (Who can forget the vitriol directed at the Government and other representatives of authority during the protests outside the Beehive earlier this year? Some sectors of society continue to target parliamentarians, especially females.)

We need fresh faces to represent us, who all live within the area they wish to represent.

Ideally we should have an equal amount of male and female candidates to choose from.

More youthful representatives would also bring in new ideas and engage more public interest — I believe that people who are appointed to these public roles should be under retirement age at the outset of each of their terms of office.

How can we be certain about candidates’ views? Under the current status quo voters don’t know if they are covert white supremacists, supporters of Voices for Freedom or advocates of similar sources of disinformation.

It was encouraging to read about the husting for female candidates which was held in Invercargill last week.

We need initiatives like these so that voters can meet and question candidates, so they can make a more informed choice. I will be attending the husting in Oamaru next month, and I would like to thank the local Rotary Club for organising this meeting.

Hazel Agnew Oamaru

Hidden dangers

THE dangers of Covid19 are all around us, but some more than others. On finally getting the condition, and catching up with the general populace, I have become a regular tester. I had thought myself super immune, or just generally super powered as despite everyone around me seeming to have Covid19, I hadn't. And as they say, in the common underhanded Kiwi manner, it’s not pleasant.

But there are even more hidden dangers . . . the tester stick will break, including in your nose, or down your throat. It used to be a super bendy friend that I would regularly stick into at least two orifices. It has now become a detachable bayonet, a broken quill, any manner of potential weaponry as it threatens to selfdestruct.

Who designed this? Yes it fits neatly in the container, but I surely know if anyone will end up with the end of a tester stick stuck down their throat it will be someone in my family, who will hate me forever for thrusting my fist down, or out, or up, to retrieve.

So be careful out there, fellow testers. Those white flimsies are made to snap off, but they are not as clever as they think.

Sally Spittle (Lonie) Roslyn

I AM very concerned at the seemingly patronising, vague reply from the Dunedin City Council deputy electoral officer Clare Sullivan to Matthew Zacharias’ request (Letters, 22.8.22) for assurance that there is a foolproof process in place to guarantee that a postal vote in the upcoming local body elections has been used only by the intended recipient and not someone who acquired it, or received it in error.

She skirted the question with vague assurances that anyone caught will be ‘‘investigated’’ and that there have been very few reported instances detected; ignoring the fact that if the security around postal votes is inadequate that would be the obvious result.

Potential voter fraud is more important than that.

Can Ms Sullivan categorically guarantee Dunedin voters that if, for example, five people in a flat received their voting papers and four of them had left the flat, or were not interested in voting for whatever reason, that the fifth person in the flat cannot cast the four unused votes thereby making a nonsense of the voting process and completely corrupting the election results?

Can she also give assurances that this has not happened in past elections?

Brendan Murphy Fairfield .................................

The Lord will roar from on high. — Jeremiah 25:30.