Candidates front up to the public

By Chris Marshall

Moderator Kathryn Uvhagen, retiring councillor John Williamson with candidates Wahine Murch, Danny Loughlin (Te Papamārearea Ward) and Deb Mair (WRC) on stage at the Great Lake Centre on Monday night.

More than 300 residents were treated to some clangers and further evidence that a couple of candidates need to do more homework at the second major meet the mayoral hopefuls and Taupō Ward candidates on Monday night at the Great Lake Centre.

Waikato Regional Council constituency hopefuls Deb Mair and Debbie Davies also made presentations, as did Te Papamārearea Māori Ward candidates Danny Loughlin and Wahine Murch.

The requirement for several complex questions to only be answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ left a few candidates frustrated and with time still to go at the meeting some audience members voted with their feet early as these dragged on.

Ann Tweedie yielded the biggest groan of the evening when she claimed climate change was “all a hoax”.

Some candidates – including Richard Cade, Steve Punter, Mark Wynyard and Bill Clarke – said they had not received questions that were to be sent out in advance.

Others were not above using the strict 90 second time limit for strategic waffle and then have the microphone cut off, avoiding having to answer the curlier part of a question.

Zane Cozens avoided saying he would give up his job as a real estate agent if he won the mayoralty.

In answer to whether he would stay the distance on council he observed that he wasn’t the first councillor to depart before a term was up and that his departure in 2017 was due to poor leadership.

“Someone had already signalled that they were leaving, and I joined their coattails. And also in 2019, the next triennium, three elected members resigned. This speaks to a problem… Without good leadership, this is what happens.”

Best example of backing up the bus went to John Funnell who had claimed at the TRG organised meeting last week that he would not take up the mayoral credit card, but on Monday night suggested he would use his own and then put in an expenses’ claim.

Tweedie and Duncan Campbell’s answers to questions on disobeying the government-mandated requirement on fluoridation, breaking an embargo and any association with the Voices for Freedom movement set them apart from most on stage.

Tweedie stated baldly that “mandates are illegal” and Campbell felt not following the Ministry of Health requirement would be justified if it reflected the will of the people.

While some candidates said they might receive emails from the organisation Voices for Freedom or speak to its members in the interests of fair representation, only Tweedie and Campbell professed a deeper association, though Tweedie said this did not include financial aid.

“I support what they stand for and get up to,” said Campbell.
One audience member quipped afterwards that if Campbell hadn’t been chewing gum while he talked that might have freed up his voice even further.

(Voices for Freedom is an anti-vaccine advocacy group that formed in December 2020 to oppose the government’s Covid-19 mitigation policies and vaccination rollout. It has been criticised for spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccinations.)

While sitting councillors obviously had an advantage in their awareness of council business, a couple of candidates demonstrated a lack of preparation on several predictable topics of discussion – funding and use of debt, the council’s position on water reforms and whether the TDC should remain a member of Local Government New Zealand.

Murch who said she was standing to represent youth got one of the bigger rounds of applause for an impassioned clarification on equity versus equality.

Equality was giving everyone the same thing, she said.

“Equity is giving everyone what they need to have a fair chance. Māori wards are about equity. It's about fairness, not just the sameness… the reality is that we aren’t always equally resourced to access the education and information that we need to enable us to participate in these systems, in these processes, confidently.
“For some of us, English isn't even our first language, so you can only imagine what systemic processes look like to those of us who don't even understand them.”
The idea of rates caps, which some sitting councillors felt were almost inevitable, prompted both Barry Delany and Rachel Shepherd to point out that comparing CPI costs of everyday goods, like milk, eggs and butter, to costs councils faced like concrete, asphalt and technical engineers didn’t line up.
“If these differences aren't accounted for, councils risk being forced into deferring maintenance, delaying infrastructure projects, and cutting back on services that would only cost us more in the long run,” said Delany.
No one running for council was on a ticket to put rates up, said Shepherd.
Wellington’s water issues were a perfect example, she said, of rating in line with household inflation instead of in line with construction or civil inflation.

“I believe that's a much better measure.”

The removal of the requirement that councils address social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing (the four well beings) was discussed by Julie Yeoman and Nicola de Lautour as problematic for the fabric of the district, with Shepherd postulating that this might present an opportunity to use money generated by the Taupō Electricity Limited (TEL) fund.

While it had been invested this term and was doing nicely, she said, “with rate caps on the horizon and rates getting out of control, perhaps this is the fund that we use for our community projects to alleviate the rates burden on those.”

As well as the mayoral, two WRC and two Māori Ward candidates, Taupō Ward candidates fronting up were de Lautour, Shepherd, Yeoman, Richard Cade, Tweedie, Wynyard, Steve Manunui, Belinda Walker, Punter, Campbell, Clarke and Delany.

Absent were Christine Rankin, Yvonne Westerman, Katrin Wilson, David Freeman, as well as Ngāhuia Foreman (Te Papamārearea) and Mich’eal Downard (WRC).

The meeting chaired by former Taupō District Councillor Kathryn Uvhagen, was livestreamed on the TDC’s YouTube channel and is available online.