Council debates make great viewing

Whilst Covid times keep many of us glued to Netflix, there is a better show on in town.

It is a reality show called the “Whanga¯ rei District Council meetings” on live stream.

Currently on the agenda is the riveting “representation review”.

This happens every seven years so you don’t want to miss this one — it will determine how we can vote in the next two elections.

After a few rounds of submissions and a hearing, the debate in the last WDC meeting became riveting watching. Seven councillors voted for change, seven against — a stalemate. The Mayor, who was for change, decided not to use her casting vote.

The issue is to either get our district’s voters to vote in “wards”, or “at large”.

Traditionally, when we were driving horses and carts, it made sense to have representation of these insular and isolated areas by a specific councillor.

The concept was “communities of interest”.

That time has gone, we now live in our Whanga¯ rei District, we are mobile and connected, we travel to work, leisure activities, sports fields, dining, cultural events and our whole district is our “community of interest”.

The ward supporters try to keep the concept alive by frantically changing boundaries in places like Kamo to get the required numbers of voters in a ward. It is pure gerrymandering and has absolutely nothing to do with “communities of interest”.

I would say that this outdated system is partly responsible for the abysmal election turnout — around 42 per cent local compared with 87 per cent in general elections.

And the issues councillors deal with are actually important for our community to move forward, we need the best brains on the block!

The ward system reduced the choices we have who we want to see in council as our representatives, and the support that currently most councillors have as part of the potential vote in our district is only a staggering 2-4 per cent.

Often we can’t vote for people we want to vote for, hence an apathy and frustration with this current process.

And to add insult to injury, when councillors are elected they have to swear an oath to “act in the interests of the whole district” so, what is the relevance of wards?

Why not get all our councillors elected at large if, in fact, they are accountable to the wider community?

The proposed elect “councillors at large” means we all get to vote for the candidates in our district.

We do this for our Mayor, he or she is “elected at large” from the whole community.

We do this for our 2 Ma¯ ori candidates, they get elected at large from the Ma¯ ori roll.

We can do this for say 8-10 councillors, elected at large from the general roll. Again, all elected by the whole district , accountable to the whole district.

Now, watch on live streaming the WDC council meeting on September 7 for the great shootout. Who is going to blink, who is going to “stick in the mud”, who will be our heroes? Council meetings have never been so riveting and I’ll bet you there will be some “Oscar” performances, ratings will go through the roof — a must watch this week!

Times for change, or times to stagnate …

Jeroen Jongejans ex-WDC Councillor

‘Townie’ gives thanks

Good on Bryce Heard for speaking up in the “Opinion” piece about what our farmers have to face in this country. Not only must it sap their morale when government point the finger for their contribution to the country’s pollution, (which considering we only provide .02 per cent of the world’s pollution is ridiculously over the top anyway), but also to suffer the ute tax and possibly, the Special Natural Areas takeover, is grossly unfair.

I want to say there are many who know you do a good job; we appreciate you, and thanks for your efforts in taking steps to be as environmentally friendly as possible, and that, on top of the huge hours you put in. A big thanks from a townie!

J. L. Wiklund Kerikeri