MY VIEWS ON A FEW THINGS
Good luck with your choice
It is not an easy one, there are plenty of good candidates this year!
But I hope I can convince you that my skills and commitment to Upper Hutt qualify me to be included in your selection for Council.
Our Council more than ever needs to work together as a team, combining its different talents to make sure we grow in the way we want as a community. Your Council needs to ensure we are a city that engages and represents all perspectives, cultures and walks of life.
I think it is time for a refreshed look at who we are and what we want to become. You only need to drive down any street in Upper Hutt to see new builds and extensions going up, as well as big developments. New homes and intensification of our land is a great response to our national and local need for housing. And I support and encourage it, but in the right way and the right place.
Family and community needs warm and safe homes. But, I am concerned that without careful planning, that haphazard and individual decision making will result in many unplanned and additional pressures on our infrastructure. Ones that are much more expensive to solve after the fact.
Infrastructure is not just roads and parking which are already under pressure. For which we desperately need cohesive transportation ad traffic planning. But includes our schooling, pre-schooling and day-care, shopping and local business development, medical services to meet increasing demand (most medical clinics are already closed to new patients), fresh water, waste water and storm water resilience, and safety and protection for all residents and business.
I am not saying the Council has the answers, or even the authority to manage all these changes. But we do have an obligation to have a plan, to have a vision, to engage the right groups and to make sure we we grow in an organised and sustainable way. To plan for a way that improves and strengthens our community. Today, more people gripe about how our City is doing, than applaud and thank our leaders.
That needs to change.
We can’t be complacent that everything is ticking along fine and that the old conventional ways will continue to enough for our new future.
It won’t!
We need innovation, smart thinking, use of technology, more engagement, and you should expect the active, sustained and visible involvement of our community leaders, and not just for a few months before elections once over three years.
I pledge to be visible, accessible, active and engaged, behind the scenes and in front.
I promise you, I have what it takes, I know what good looks like. We are a City with a lot to be proud of and I want to make what we have is well known, that we achieve even more of our potential, and that we are ready and fit for the future.
Thank you for your attention.
QUESTIONS
1. Do you support the use of masks, especially indoors as an important tool for keeping Covid at bay and others safe?
Yes, when reasonable to do so. Sensible public health measures protect all of us.
2. What will you bring to the Council table that is different from the current leadership?
I bring a unique and fresh perspective on what good looks like. And I have a base of experience working with some of the largest companies and institutions in the world, while also having an grounded sense of our Upper Hutt community. I have lead large teams and I am passionate about being a part of high performing teams.
3. What are your views on challenging the new Significant Natural Areas so property owners don’t lose value on their biggest asset?
I support ensuring all our areas are transparently and properly zoned to ensure we preserve our natural environment and assets. Once its gone its gone.
4. What will you do for people with invisible disabilities in the community to use playgrounds, use public spaces etc and feel like part of Upper Hutt?
Public spaces should be available and accessible for all, especially those with disabilities, both visible and unseen. The should have sufficient representation and engagement in decision making and we should make the effort to ensure that be so.
5. What is your vision for improving recycling in Upper Hutt?
Let’s catch up with the rest of the country, for goodness sake, how is this still even an issue!
Absolutely not. Our precious water resources are ours and we shouldn’t be selling them to the highest bidder.
6. Upper Hutt has a number of water springs.
Would you be open to allowing a water bottling company to take the water?
Absolutely not. Our precious water resources are ours and we shouldn’t be selling them to the highest bidder.
7. What are your thoughts on Upper Hutt shifting to voting using Single Transferable Vote instead of First Past the Post?
Our currently system serves us. I am not a fan of making things more complicated. It is a struggle to encourage people to vote today, without making the system even more confusing.
8. What support do you have from the current Mayor for your campaign platforms?
Our current mayor has served us well and we are a great city and where we are thanks to his leadership. I think we align on most policies and he would support me. However, I do not we don’t agree on use of the Silverstream Spur, which I believe should be completely preserved as a reserve as it was originally intended.
9. Do you have, or have you had, any association with Voices for Freedom, and did you attend or support the protest in Parliament Grounds earlier this year?
No I do not support this radical and extreme perspectives. I find it noticibale they criticize what we have but offer no constructive alternatives. Their policies are largely lazy and ill-informed and will not serve our community.
10. What is your response to the pandemic, in general?
As a country we can be proud of our response. We saved many lives, being sensible, science based and respectful of our wider good. I lost friends and family overseas to COVID and I felt safer here than I would have during my many years overseas. Now is the time to move to living with this disease like we have with measles, polio, smallpox and others illnesses.
11. Should UHCC social housing firstly be offered to those who are locals?
We currently don’t have social housing as a Council, nor do we need to. But our Council should be at the forefront ensuring our local voluntary organisations are coordinated and able to accomplish what they can for those with housing insecurity. And yes, we should look after our immediate community first.
12. Last Year some councils decided to create Maori Wards for this local body elections, Upper Hutt City Council didn’t. What is your position on creating Maori Wards for the 2025 local body elections?
I think we should engage with our local Māori community and they should decide.
13. What are you going to do to make sure young people can drive change in the city?
I think a Junior Council is a great way to convey local community values and encourage involvement and ensure their voice is heard.
14. Will you introduce household food waste collection to stop this waste from going to landfill?
I think we have options to encourage household composting, disposal of waste and other initiatives that aren’t costly or onerous.
15. WCC has committed to normalising te Reo Maori. Would you commit to doing the same for Upper Hutt?
Yes I think we are a proud multicultural society and our te Ao Māori heritage is p[art of who we are a a nation and a community. We should be doing more to promote equity.
16. What are you personally going to do to role-model climate action such as biking to work every day, going zero waste, or eating a plant based diet?
I try and do what I can, I compost, I take public transport to the rugby, and I eat my greens. I think we can all find our own ways to contribute to climate action. But I do think Councilors should be role models.
One way is to make local facilities more appealing so people don’t want to, or need to, drive to Queensgate to shop or attend Wellington or Porirua for local events.
17. There is no overlap between planet saving planning and car centric planning.
What will you do this term to actively reduce the number of private vehicles on our city streets?
One way is to make local facilities more appealing so people don’t want to, or need to, drive to Queensgate to shop or attend Wellington or Porirua for local events.
18. Covid has shown us that we need a bit more space to move around and not catch contagious diseases. At the moment those in cars have all the space and pedestrians are squashed onto narrow pavements. What will you do to make more space for those of us walking around the city? Such as one-way streets, change on street parking to pavement etc?
I think more pedestrian precincts and walking spaces are important to our growth and identity, as well as to the appeal of our downtown spaces.
19. What is your immediate actionable plan for upgrading decaying and failing infrastructure such as sewage, water, and stabilisation of hillsides for critical routes and suspending non critical projects?
Not building on our hills when we don’t need to would be a good start. We also need to plan and invest now in our infrastructure to be fit for the future. We are financially strong Concil and we can borrow within reason to build for the future.
20. Did you attend the protest at Parliament in March and what are your thoughts on it now?
No. Our tradition and freedom to protest is a strong one and an important feature of a healthy democracy. I protested the apartheid and the rugby tour back in the day. But it needs to be respectful and directly, not just chaos and disruption for the sake of it. We should tolerate that behaviour.
21. Dog owners in Christchurch have been issued with a lifelong metal disk engraved with their pet’s unique identification number from June 2022 under a change to dog registrations that will help the environment and save money. Do you think UHCC should adopt this policy?
I agree that sounds like a better idea than constant admin every year.
22. Water is a precious and needed resource. Should councils make it compulsory for houses to install water tank storage for watering their garden and/or offer tank storage at a discounted price?
I think we should be wary of making anything compulsory we can’t enforce. But I think we should encourage it more than we do.
23. Do you think the provision and beautification of dog amenities should be paid by ratepayers or should they be covered by dog owner’s registration fees?
I think users should pay when it is practical. It seems this is one of those times. We do have lots of dogs in Upper Hutt and I do think we can do more to provide amentieis such as dog parks. They can be inexpensive and practical. My dog doesn’t need much, just a fenced area and some friends to run around with!
24. The current process for citizen engagement seems very daunting for the majority of people. How can ordinary residents and ratepayers get their voices heard by the council?
Council needs to make more effort. Obviously we should be live streaming all our meetings. We should be making more time for public engagement and voices to be heard. Why can’t we rotate our meetings around the public meeting and social venues within Upper Hutt? Council should be trying harder and not sticking with convention.
25. Saving the planet and saving the car can’t happen together. What are you going to do in the term to actively reduce the number of private cars driving around and being parked on our city’s streets?
Same as Qn 17 One way is to make local facilities more appealing so people don’t want to, or need to, drive to Queensgate to shop or attend Wellington or Porirua for local events.
26. What do you think will be the three biggest issues for Councils in the next term (2022-2025)?
(1) Housing growth causing traffic nightmares. (2) Pressure on water infrastructure, pun intended. (3) Crime and safety concerns caused by cost increases, resources become scarce and as we wean ourselves off the safety net of COVID public money.
27. Do you think that the Resource Management Act reform is necessary?
Yes. But I think we need to be careful how we execute on its requirements locally. It is easy and I think lazy to just blame the Act when we don’t like its impact. We have choices.
28. How respectful is the relationship between Central and Local Government?
I don’t think local government is listened to as much as it should be. But I also think local government is not always as thoughtful or well planned as it should be. Local government reforms are a result of that.
Hard Hitting Questions
1. What is your position on the Three Waters Reform and why have you come to that position?
Opposed to it. I don’t think all councils have done their job equally and I think Three Waters is not respecting or giving due credit to those that have planned better than others.
2. There are talks about amalgamating Hutt City Council and Upper Hutt City Council into one council. What is your position on this and why?
Strongly opposed. This was considered and the residents were strongly opposed. We do not need to relitigate this, it is a distraction from the important issues of today.
3. Could you please share your thoughts on Covid-19 vaccination, and whether you have any affiliation with Voices for Freedom, Freedom Rights Coalition, or any other organisation involved
Vaccination is a good thing and the best means of protecting us from many diseases, not just COVID-19, but including measles, polio, smallpox and other potential outbreaks for other illnesses. I have no affiliation with any political parties or political organisations. VFF and FRC and other similar groups offer no practical solutions or alternatives but are just interested in disrupting our society. There are plenty of ways to effect change and protest civilly and constructively without such hostility and misinformation.