Month: October 2016
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What the Waitakere Ranges Local Board wish to accomplish this term
I have had the privilege of being elected as chair of the Waitakere Ranges Local Board this term and my colleague Saffron Toms will be deputy chair. Following is the text of my speech that I have to the Board’s inaugural meeting. E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e rau rangatira mā Tēnā koutou, tēnā…
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Leave our libraries alone
When I was on Waitakere City Council it was my pleasure to have been involved in the opening of four new libraries out west. Admittedly the Massey library had been given the go ahead by the previous Council but the Henderson, Glen Eden and New Lynn libraries were all results of decisions that the Council that…
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There is something going wrong in Aotearoa
Is it just me or is there something terribly wrong happening in Aotearoa New Zealand. I just can’t get my head round the number of homicides that have recently occurred. In the last week there have been two out West in Glendene and Te Atatu, one in Gisborne and one in Whangarei. The cases are…
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The voter turnout problem
We are down to the last few days of the 2016 local government election campaign. By about 1 pm this Saturday we will have a good idea who the new mayor is, who the Councillors are and what the local boards will look like. Turnout is still problematic. It is currently at 19.9% which is…
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What can be done about Auckland’s housing crisis
I have done a lot of door knocking and meeting and greeting people during the current election campaign. The one issue that people have wanted to discuss more than any other is the housing crisis. The features of the crisis are clear, there are over 40,000 New Zealanders with non existing or severely compromised housing arrangements.…