Calling on Cull, LGNZ to protect public rights

MAYOR Cull’s message to residents in the April edition of FYI Dunedin

could not have been more appropriate in the wake of the tragedy in Christchurch.

Our community is made up of people of many ethnicities and beliefs, all of whom have come here from many different countries and all have contributed to our city.

What a pity that Mr Cull stopped short of endorsing the provision in Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi, that all citizens should have the same legal entitlements regardless of their ethnicity and regardless of when they or their ancestors came here.

That principle was challenged last year by five local authorities who sought to impose divisive, ethnicexclusive voting wards on their communities via public referendum. The communities decisively defeated the move.

In response, Mr Cull, as chairman of Local Government New Zealand, sought to persuade the Government to remove the public’s right to such a referendum.

If Mr Cull is sincere in his current message to Dunedin residents, he should now review his position on divisive, ethnicexclusive voting wards for local body elections, and seek to persuade his LGNZ colleagues to drop the idea.

John Bell

Forbury

[Dunedin Mayor and LGNZ president Dave Cull replies:

‘‘Local Government New Zealand has no view on whether councils should have Maori wards and constituencies. These are matters for each council and its community to decide through their representation review process.

‘‘In many cases, local iwi and communities do not support the Maori ward approach, and this is reflected in council decisionmaking not to create such wards.

‘‘LGNZ’s concern is that the current process for establishing Maori wards and constituencies is unfair and inconsistent, as it does not apply to other forms of ward or constituency.

‘‘By comparison, there is no ability for citizens to trigger a referendum to override a council’s decision to establish a rural ward or community board. In applying referendum provisions only to the creation of Maori wards, the current system discriminates against Maori.

‘‘The legal regime should support local decisionmaking by elected councils. This is best achieved by aligning the rules concerning the creation of Maori wards with the existing rules concerning the creation of any other type of ward or constituency. Either the poll provisions should apply to all wards, or they should apply to none.’’]

Price of lamb

IN my local Dunedin supermarket recently, I spotted lamb loin chops at a staggering price of $30.99 per kilo.

I passed this info on to my sister in Scotland. She came back with a price of £10 ($NZ19) at her local supermarket (Iceland) for a whole leg of New Zealand lamb.

How can this be possible? Somewhere along the line, some people are getting very rich out of this but I doubt very much if it is the farmer. Wallace Russell

Halfway Bush

Aurora debt

IN his letter (ODT, 12.4.19), Brian Miller claims stadium supporters don’t want the truth to get in the way of a good story, but then uses incorrect figures himself to describe Aurora Energy.

He claims Aurora’s debt stands at close to a billion dollars — it is actually less than $300 million.

Aurora has in recent years made subvention payments, the primary purpose of which is intragroup tax management. Aurora’s borrowing is focused on investing in upgrades on the electricity network.

Mike Lord

Dunedin