PUBLIC ADDRESS The envelope, please ...

PUBLIC ADDRESS The envelope, please ... | Sep 29, 2004 10:43

So, how to vote in the local body elections? I'm not averse on principle to sending the odd vote to a CitRat candidate - the late Phil Warren always got a tick from me - but I'm blowed if I can see one I'd want to back from this year's Citizens & Ratepayers Now slate. And, in general, I simply don't trust the buggers.

You will, of course, be making your own choices - read the booklet! - but people do keep asking me about this, so ....from my point of view, it was a string of CitRat-dominated councils that allowed Auckland's water and wastewater infrastructure to deteriorate to the point of crisis by milking its budget. In this term, after campaigning on a zero rates rise, they altered the balance of the rates burden so that those least able to afford it faced increases of nearly 40%.

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PUBLIC ADDRESS Late run | Sep 28, 2004 09:57
Christine Fletcher won last night's Holmes Auckland mayoral debate by a country mile. She had a better grasp of the issues than either of her rivals, and got her points across effectively. Unfortunately for her, her goose was cooked some time ago in the only two published polls on the mayoral race.

Fletcher failed to get near enough to Banks in the first, independent poll, and ran a distant third in the poll taken by the Herald after Dick Hubbard announced his candidacy. Now, with the postal vote already in progress, it's just a bit late for her to be finding form. And I personally am not going to risk a vote that might have the effect of returning the incumbent mayor. Politics is a cruel business. Perhaps now that they've made up, Hubbard could offer her a job.

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