My main reason for standing for council is to ensure that this election campaign focuses on the political choices we make as we chose who will lead us and the kind of outcomes we can expect.
At the last general election we were given very vague choices about water – one side told us the coming water infrastructure upgrades would cripple ratepayers so they promoted a government funded model called 3 waters – the other side focused on racism and division but didn’t tell us what the alternative funding would be.
This is an old trick of the neoliberals – distract us with misinformation and lies and then hit us with a huge bill from their hidden agenda.
National’s hidden agenda was unaffordable rates.
And now we are having to address it.
National’s supporters in this campaign here in Whakatāne are telling us to pay for National’s $440 million water alternatives we must sell our publicly owned assets and privatise everything that moves.
This means we will pay the same of higher rates, and then pay again for the services our rates used to cover.
Those services have been revealed to include cemeteries, public toilets, community safety, animal control, road safety, building consenting, monitoring and certifying food premises, liquor licensing and gambling premises monitoring, resource consenting and enforcement, annual planning, annual reports, long-term plan processes, audits, bylaws review and enforcement, local policies, noise control and health and safety compliance.
These are now no longer ‘core services’.
And yet we are required BY LAW, to carry them out.
What is going on?
Good question.
By underfunding council’s central government is opening the door for these services to be funded by the neoliberal users pays more model.
They are coming after the silverware and not just the swimming pools and the airport.
They’re coming to take away everything that someone else can do and make a profit on.
We will still pay unaffordable rates, BUT WE WILL GET LESS FOR IT.
And we will still have to pay for these other ‘non-core services’.
Just so someone can make money form them.
This is what you voted for in the general election.
Don’t vote for it in the local body election.
Push back. Fight these new taxes and charges with everything we’ve got.
There are much better alternatives than selling of the family jewels.
And I’ve got those alternatives on my website and I talk about these alternatives at the Whakatāne Sunday Market or at my pop up rallies.
Vote for a much better future than more of the neoliberal sameness that the government wants to force down our throats.
References:
Ōpōtiki council plans $70m spend for three waters regulation – NZ Herald
Whakatāne District Council: Cemeteries, toilets not ‘core services’? – NZ Herald
