Saturday 12 October 2019

Local Body elections the good the bad and the ugly Wheeler's Corner 80 13th Oct 2019

This From: Robert McLachian:
1.
"Great to see the top four climate candidates elected in Palmerston North (with 95% of votes counted): Brent Barrett, Renee Dingwall, Lorna Johnson, and Aleisha Rutherford. Karen Naylor, Pat Handcock, and Zulfiqar Butt also did well on the Climate Voter scorecard and were elected. Zulfiqar has a PhD in measuring greenhouse gas emissions & I expect him to be strong in this area.

In the Horizons Regional Council, Green Party candidates Rachel Keedwell and Fiona Gordon were elected in Palmerston North, and Sam Ferguson (Green) came first in Horowhenua.

With New Zealand's first Green Party mayor elected in Dunedin, so far this has been a good day for climate politics". Thanks Robert,

The final count is still to be announced but my gut feeling is that the results above won't change.
https://www.pncc.govt.nz/media/3132217/iteration-report-12-oct-2019.pdf

Radio NZ has just reported the bad part of our local election process:

"Andy Foster has been elected mayor of Wellington, ousting incumbent Justin Lester.
The candidates had had a nailbiting wait for results after a large number of last-minute ballots were still to be counted today.
Last night, with the count of 90 percent of the votes completed, Andy Foster was leading incumbent Justin Lester by 715 votes, and 5600 special votes were being counted today.
Mr Foster told RNZ's Insight election special that if he was elected mayor, his prominent backer Sir Peter Jackson would not be influencing what happened within the new council"
.

If you believe that Peter Jackson won't influence Andy Fosters behaviour, you must be a tooth fairy believer ... Money talks and always has a pay-back...

2.
Peace action Manawatu is no doubt over joyed at the cancellation of the latest offer by the re-elected Mayor Grant Smith [Tin Soldier] to host the Defence Force Industry Forum's Arms Expo here in Palmerston has been rejected by the Defence Industry Association, who turned down his offer. It would seem that the anti war organisations throughout NZ have forced this ugly behaviour off shore, because the DIAF has been forced to relocated its salesmanship team to operate in Australia...rather than in NZ, a wise move, we in NZ have always been light years ahead of Australia in creating peace rather than war!



Now if the American population can somehow bring their crazy Donald [Duck] Trump under control and stop him from declaring yet another long lasting war outside of his own borders, the world could become a safer place for human beings. Since the 2nd WW the USA has never been successful using its armed forces as a weapon of social change, in fact everything they touch ends up rotten and corrupt.It would seem that dictators are Trumps best friends...

With the continuing efforts by all those who love our environment, and those whom opt for peace over war, who love more than hate, people like the young Greta from Sweden and the millions world wide to follow her, we could and will end up with a more human world, we may even save the planet and the human race from extinction. Courage comes in various shapes and forms. We have a chance to revitalise democracy and freedom by marching together on a path toward peace rather than war.
3.


Wheeler's Corner has been broadcast on Manawatu People Radio for over 12 or 13 years, but alas it ends this week, I have really enjoyed presenting the programme and I want to thank all the staff for the work they put into making the station fuction along with all the community interaction the create and support. I've had some exciting moments, such as the time the PNCC CEO tried to shut down my programme, which failed but increased my listenership greatly.

The present management team of Fraser Greig, Hugh Dingwall and Samuel Gordon are doing a wonderful job of keeping the station up and running. I thank them and all the present and past volunteers over the past decade plus.

While I am still remaining as a trustee on the board so I will be a part of the team of MPR. It has been and still is an exciting role. Wheeler's Corner blog site will contine, as typing is easier than speaking on the radio, and while it true that some have said, I was never short of words, in fact they wish I would shut up and listen more! And they were correct. In so many respects listening is more important and educational than talking.

Well that's it for this week, and please never forget that you are amongst the most important people in the world.


 

 
   

1 comment:

Unknown said...

All the best for the future Peter.
Best Wishes
from
Margaret Jeune