Today I am very proud to be selected by Not A Party to contest the Auckland Mayoralty Election and the 2016 Mount Roskill By-Election simultaneously.

As in previous elections, these will likely play a pivotal role in determining how Aucklanders don't necessarily choose to live their lives. By electing a Not A Party candidate, Aucklanders will have a well deserved opportunity at self-governance, rather than a monolithic, imposing, oppressive local government.

Aucklanders deserve to have the best possible mayor, and if successful in my bid, I will donate every last penny of my salary to various charities as suggested to me by the people of Auckland. I won't do a single thing as mayor just as I haven't done a single thing for the past seven years of my retirement. Decisions shall be left up to the people, not an elected official in a farcical ''democratic'' ceremony.

I will be working hard all year to show Aucklanders that I can be that mayor. A non-official mayor who is engaged to the community, approachable, stands up for local people in times of difficulty, and represents not a single view of my own when in office. It is my belief that the role of an elected official ought not to impose one's own views and laws on the people, but rather to stand down immediately and allow local communities to build and grow naturally.

In working together within our community, we can all ensure excellent policy on the most local level possible that allows people to get on with building prosperous families, businesses, and lives.

Yours sincerely,
Adam Holland

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable view is that the government was being deliberately misleading. Are we to think Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is a fool, or a liar? It seems rather early on in his term of office to be facing that unpleasant choice. Yet when Luxon (and senior MP Chris Bishop) tried to defend the indefensible with the same wildly inaccurate claim, there are not a lot of positive explanations left on the table.... More