Local Election Report comment.

17^th August 2016 Candidate meeting.

On Wednesday the 17^th of August I went to the most boring council candidate meeting ever…it was a total waste of time and effort. It started at 7pm and by 8.30 pm we had heard from a so called election expert who took 15 minutes to explain the electoral process, 2 Mayoral candidates 26 or 27 candidates all of whom cared wonderfully about Palmerston North, all had passion of some sort or another. All suggested you should vote for them…none had any policy other than faith in their own unproven or tested ability to pick winners…None had an actual time frame for achievement measurement.

There were amongst the candidate Councillors some who have been on council for so long that it was hard to remember council without them. [Findlay, Jefferies, Dennison have all passed their use by dates]

The usual style in PN is to retire as a councillor or Mayor and immediately stand for the regional council and remain there until death forces them out.

There is also a new income stream available to professional public money takers and that is to stand in both the Council and Health elections, this year Dennison, Broad, Findlay, Egan, McCann and Naylor are attempting this double dipping habit.

The sameness was overwhelming; each councillor claimed they were the driving force for this or that. 

Abi Symes was the only new candidate who actually suggested that just maybe younger people might actually make some progress in this ultra conservative city; she was a breath of fresh air.   

The present day Councillors all stated that they had served the council / public / citizens absolutely amazingly brilliantly. Many suggested that what happened in Havelock North could not happen here, because they were all alert and watching the quality water situation…closely, there was no mention that Palmerston North failed to comply with conditions laid down by the Manawatu Regional [Horizons] Council.

We had the idiotic spectacle of Council wannabe Joseph Poff still raving on about wind-farms etc. Jim Jefferies found a sudden love of our water supplies but failed to mention that he was, along with Lew Findlay one of the old Councillors who have kept pumping crap into the Manawatu River.

Adrian Broad.

Adrian Broad tried to create an illusion when he read out a list of past employers and a massive list of organisations he has [supposedly] helped create jobs in, after listening to the list of his grandiose positions one can but wonder why he included the Hospital Board as if this role was a community voluntary activity when in fact is a paid role. It’s not hard to tell when Public Relations depart and truth becomes obvious.

The contest for Mayor is totally nuts. Grant Smith the present mayor Vs Ross Barber who was nominated by ‘God’ to represent his [Gods] team! At the meeting Smith used the usual standardised PR words to prove how grateful he was to represent etc. etc. While Barber spoke for two minutes and what he said was incomprehensible to be polite, nutty to be honest.

It’s no wonder people don’t vote…the numbers attending this so-called public meeting equaled around three people per candidate. Three media staff, five or six council staff gave the meeting a half filled look…

Questions to candidates were not allowed, but questions over coffee was allowed!{Democracy in Action}

In fact these so-called meet the candidates’ events are really much like the behaviour of present Councillors in regard to the instructions issued by a $350.000 CEO and his full time team, they tell the Councillors what they should / must / do and for the most part Councillors simply go along with the CEO’s wishes.

Brent Barrett.

The Labour Party and especially the Greens [nominated Brent Barrett] offered a collective force that was large enough to develop real policy for the future; it is a process and the only process to counter the destruction of the Ward System.

Under the ward system, meetings consisted of no more than around six candidates who then would answer questions and hold discussions about past, present and future happenings. This gave a much better in depth discussion…one could consider that wards represented their actual communities.

The introduction of political party tickets is now the only way that action ‘Policy’ can be decided in any meaningful manner and thereby giving choice to those who vote.

The Labour Party and the Greens have bravely recognised that fact; they deserve your support in attempting to reinstate community into the council.

Neoliberal clap-trap has over the last twenty plus years attempted to convince communities like ours that only if they pay supper inflated salaries to so called CEO’s will we get better services, evidence proves otherwise, just ask the people of Havelock North.

I strongly suggest, in all honesty that if you are a Greens voter then vote for your greens council nominee [Brent Barrett] or if you are a Labour supporter that you vote for your Labour Party nominees [Zulfigar Butt, David Chishholm, Sheryll Hoera and Lorna Johnson]

Of those standing for both the Council and Health Board you I would suggest you consider carefully which position you pick for them Council or Health Board, they simply cannot to do justice to both. By doing this you will be at least sharing the load plus adding to the community input for these positions. It’s the democratic action to take. Those standing for both positions are: Broad, Dennison, Egan, Findlay, McCann, and Naylor.

Palmerston North Kids are suffering...

The report below was published today the figures it contains were before the huge increase in unemployment took place under the present government. At the last election John Key stated that fixing child poverty would be a prime objective...while the figures are shocking they are even more-so today after three years of cutting taxes for the 1% and ignoring the 99%. It is not hard to see why the Occupy groups are starting up.

Palmerston North's kids are not OK

About one-quarter of them live in poverty, and in 2010, there was the equivalent of almost one child abuse alert for every four children.

Poverty, ill-health and abuse are three big dangers that emerge from a children's profile compiled by Palmerston North City Council policy analyst Julie Macdonald for the council's community wellbeing committee meeting today.

Children aged up to 14 make up one-fifth of the city's population, and although they are affected in some way by all council decisions, there is no special provision that ensures their views always influence decision-making.

Protection from neglect and abuse, family income and employment, and housing affordability and security are identified in the report as crucial for the city's children's future wellbeing.

There were 15,700 children aged up to 14 living in Palmerston North in 2006, a figure projected to be growing towards 16,400 by 2021.

And last year, there were 4270 notifications of possible abuse to Child, Youth and Family in the Manawatu region for children and young people aged up to 17.

While the figures are not out of kilter with national reporting, the profile finds it is "a significant level of abuse and neglect".

On the poverty front, 22.5 per cent of the city's children were living in low-income households in 2006.

The figures pre-date the international recession and rise in unemployment.

At the same time 19.1 per cent of the city's total population was on low incomes, showing that children are more likely than adults to be poor.

"The number of children living in low-income households is important because low incomes are associated with lower educational attainment and poorer health," said Ms Macdonald.

More Palmerston North children identify as Maori (27 per cent) compared to the population overall, with 16 per cent Maori.

While as a group, the city's children are no more likely than the national average to be admitted to hospital, that rate is higher among 10 to 14-year-olds.

Ashhurst, Kelvin Grove and Cloverlea have the highest proportion of children living in their communities. [From the Manawatu Standard by Janie Rankin Monday 7^th Nov 2011]