A crowd of 170 enthusiastic Waikanae voters turned out on Sunday to hear Kāpiti Mayoral Candidates, Districtwide Council Candidates, and Greater Wellington contenders answer some searching questions. Some did better than others.
The public meeting was hosted by the Waikanae Branch of the Labour Party but any hint of Party Politics was soon put to rest as candidates were focussed on local issues.
Debate chair Bruce Taylor says it was a very deliberate move to keep the meeting as non-partisan as possible.
Very ably chaired by Mr Taylor, the meeting at the Waikanae Baptist Church had the unusual format of questions only which was a relief to many who have heard the same pitch from candidates many times before.
Mr Taylor says the question format was to encourage participation and the audience responses would have given the candidates something to think about.
Questions related to; What motivated the candidates to stand; Dealing with Central and Regional Government; and How to create a Central Hub for Kāpiti.
Five Mayoral candidates: Janet Holborow, Michele Lewis, Martin Halliday, Chris Mitchell, and Rob McCann all made their pitch to polite applause. Interestingly the biggest applause of the round went to Murray Lobb who was away at a family wedding. His two minutes worth was superbly read by Bill Lennox.
Round two saw Halliday, Mitchell, and McCann receive the most enthusiastic responses regarding future relations with central and regional government.
Round three was the most contentious as it related to intensification and the idea of a central hub for Kāpiti.
Ms Holborow felt Kāpiti was a series of distinct communities and we need to maintain their individual identities and added that there will be six storey buildings in Paraparaumu. Mr McCann said growth is on the way and it is essential to plan for it and maintain community identity.
Continuing the theme, Mr Mitchell said we are not an urban centre, and neither should we be, while Mr Halliday said Paraparaumu is already our hub. He said Kāpiti communities were a string of pearls, each with their own hub and to maintain identity will require the empowerment of community boards.
Next up were questions from the floor, the most contentious relating to the Community Advisory Group set up to look at the Waikanae Library which only had one Waikanae resident on it.
Mr Halliday said this was the result of a bad process while Mr McCann added this should be driven by councillors and not staff and should not have been done in secrecy.
Districtwide council candidates Lawrence Kirby, Maria McMillan, Ian Powell, and Jackie Elliott took the stage next, joined by Ms Lewis who is also standing for that role. An apology was recorded for Liz Koh.
The same three questions as the mayors were responded too. Mr Lawrence talked of his experience in the social and community sector, Ms McMillan said it was important to represent those not doing so well in the community, Mr Powell was on strong ground representing the need for health advocacy for Kāpiti and Ms Elliott said her nine years experience on council will be an asset in a new council likely to be lacking continuity.
The question of social housing saw a division of views when asked if ratepayers should fund it. Ms Lewis was an adamant no, Mr Kirby was a no, saying he wants community organisations to do it, while Mr Powell was not a yes to Council funding social housing but was a yes to facilitating social housing including partnering, and Ms Elliott was a yes, pointing out Kāpiti only had 1% social housing where the vast majority of councils had 4%.
Regional Council candidates Asher Wilson-Goldman and Penny Gaylor were up next. Again they gave their reasons for standing and spoke about relationships with Government and local councils and the need to vastly improve communication and cooperation.
Mr Wilson-Goldman continues to impress at every public meeting and was generally acclaimed the best speaker on the day.
Next meeting: Bruce Taylor will be back in the chair next Sunday when the Waikanae Ward council candidates and the Waikanae Community Board candidates will be out to impress voters. The meeting starts at 2pm at the Waikanae Presbyterian Church, 43 Ngaio Rd, Waikanae.
The chair of the organising group, Marion Norton, says “We host public meetings like this because we are committed to democracy. We all value informed participation.”
She says each candidate will have an equal time to answer set questions and the chair will ensure that they all get a fair hearing. There will also be questions from the floor and time to chat with candidates informally.
