“Kāpiti could be fantastic for all of us, fantastic for our kids and fantastic for their kids,” says districtwide Council candidate Maria McMillan.
“A place where everyone has a warm home, good water and enough to eat. Where women, children and everybody live free from violence and abuse. Where you don’t need a car to get to shops and services. Where businesses and people have a fair go. Where climate change is taken seriously, the land, rivers and ocean are protected, and the role of mana whenua is upheld.”
Ms McMillan trained as a librarian, has worked with information and data for the past 25 years and now works as an IT consultant. She has held strategic and leadership roles in the private, public and not for profit sectors. She has lived in Paekākāriki for nine years and has family connections to the region.
Ms McMillan has a keen interest in Council’s mandate to support the Kāpiti community’s economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing and is centering her campaign around three policies:
- Give council employees and contractors a living wage
- Make it easy to live in Kāpiti without a car
- Support projects that make sense and that the community wants.
On top of that Ms McMillan is keen to use her plain language expertise to help improve communication between Council and the community.
“I have an honours degree in politics where I specialised in local government policy and even I find it difficult to understand some of the council documents,” says Ms McMillan.
“We need to find ways to avoid policy jargon that only a handful of already engaged people understand. We need to be clear and straightforward about what’s going on and how it will affect people. We need to listen to different views and make practical decisions based on the best evidence and the best ideas.”
