Horowhenua Chronicle: Local Body Elections
I remember back nine years ago pondering about putting my nomination in for the local body elections. It takes a lot of consideration for people to put their name forward to represent our community. There is always a chance of failure and the unknown of what really happens around the council table.
My eight years on the Horowhenua District Council were extremely interesting and gave me a great insight into what happens in our communities. Although councillors stand in a ward, once around the table they are expected to vote on district wide issues. Of course they need to provide an open line of communication for ratepayers in the ward they get elected from.
Nominations closed last week and the line-up looks exciting from the mayoral contest, to councillors and the Foxton Community Board, Horizons Regional Council and the Midcentral District Health Board.
In my role now as a local Member of Parliament it’s important I work with those involved in local government. For about 15 months I wore two hats, that of a Horowhenua District Councillor and that of an MP. This gave me first hand experience of debating bills in Parliament and then later seeing them implemented in our district.
In many instances the ratepayer has been left to pay for badly drafted legislation. A classic example was the micro-chipping of dogs. National said at the time that it wouldn’t prevent or reduce dog attacks on people and would instead place another form of taxation on those dog owners who already register them.
Due to spiraling rates bills, last year ACT leader Rodney Hide drew up a private members Bill to cap rates at inflation. Since 2000 Labour has passed nearly 70 pieces of legislation with many impacting on our rates bills. Hide’s Bill gained a majority of support in parliament and looked to be potentially embarrassing for the Labour Government, so they called for an inquiry.
The inquiries basic terms of reference were:
- How to improve local government funding (covering rating and other revenue)
- Analyse councils decisions on expenditure
- Evaluate alternative sources of revenue
The inquiries report has been sitting on the Minister of Local Government’s desk for about three weeks now. It will be interesting to see when the Minister releases the report and what he decides to delete before it is made public. My guess is he will stall the release until after the local body elections otherwise it will dominate public meeting agendas.
I wish to thank all the candidates for putting their names forward, as they all believe in our district and want to make it a better place to live. Elections are great things. They are part of our democratic process and give you all the chance to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on who you want to represent you every three years.
Elected members are then given a mandate to do their best on your behalf. In another three years’ time, you will get the opportunity to decide whether that best was good enough!
I wish every candidate every success and will enjoy watching the campaigns unfold in the next few weeks and look forward to working with the voters’ choices in the future.
The main thing is we all participate in our democratic right – by making a choice at voting time.