Lower Hutt's election hasn't got the media attention that Wellington City gets, and there's very little information about the 23 candidates standing for 6 city-wide seats out there for our turgid little city. This is my unabashedly biased view (of many) of them. As per the title, last night I attended Team Naenae Trust's Meet the Candidates event. It was a speed dating format, with 4ish minutes given with each candidate. I was one-on-one with the candidates, and I asked one main question: "What do you imagine Lower Hutt looks like in 2052 (30 years from now)?".
I was interested in both what the candidates' visions were, and how they formed their response.
I tried to be as polite as possible, and let the candidates speak unprompted.
The format is: Name - Endorsement/Party + my voting recommendation (voting, toss-up, not). I ended up selecting 5/6 city-wides, with one slot I'm still not sure about. All decisions purely vibe-based, from my sketchy memory.
Eastern Ward Candidates:
Andy Mitchell - Independent
Andy has a relaxed surfer dude demeanour, with a deep, passionate, and coherent vision of a regenerative, vibrant, nature-centred city just under the surface. As an incumbent councillor, he also has a really clear grasp of the issues and challenges facing the city and the limits of council, and also of the inherent inter-connectedness of the problems, like describing residential zoning policy as a climate change issue. A Naenae resident, so I'm also biased there. Voting.
David Harle - United Hutt
David struggled with the premise of the question, admitting he wouldn't be around then, and (at least I think it was him, things started to blur by the time we got to talk) ended up speaking about his vision for a scale model of Mt Everest to sit outside the new Naenae pool to inspire youths not to do crimes. I was unconvinced. General vibe of "low rates now, fix problems later" - ie climate change is something we can deal with in twenty or thirty years. Not voting.
City At Large Candidates:
Josh Briggs - Independent
Josh is a 2 term councillor, and has a rock-solid, confident grasp of council, its proceedings, and its achievements. I was really impressed by the way that he was able to concisely describe a range of issues, how they were being addressed, the work that needed to be done, and how council processes often hindered that work, and how they could be improved. He had a coherent vision of the future, and I got the sense he knew how to get there. Voting.
Brady Dyer - Independent
Brady is a first-term councillor, and while neither as confident nor as solid as Josh, he had a cohesive idea of what was & needed to be done, and a clear vision. A good list of achievements as a councillor too. Voting.
Rachael Leamy -
Poor Rachael looked exhausted, and blamed the intensity of campaigning. She didn't have a clear vision of the future of the city, nor of the function and role of councillors. A lot of "something must be done" but no pathway to how that might be solved. Did not seem to have the tools for the job. Not voting.
Chris Norton -
Chris handed over a full A4 page of policies, all focussed around a climate-change resilient city. He backed that up with a coherent, cohesive vision of community-led climate adaptation, accessible and safe transport, and regenerating nature and food systems. He really centred climate change as the single biggest issue that cuts across all others, and was also the only candidate to explicitly support STV. Plus, he's a Naenae local. Voting.
Mark Atkin - Independent ("anti-everything alliance with Lloyd & Gibbs")
I've given Atkin, Lloyd and Gibbs their own party affiliation, because they've teamed up. Mark's answer was lost in the hubbub of the crowd, and I picked up little snatches (Agenda 21, woke, world economic forum). His vision of the future was "unimaginable". Later, described to me as "antivax mumble rap". Not voting.
Kari Lloyd - Independent ("anti-everything alliance with Atkin & Gibbs")
'Litany' is a word I kinda-but-not-exactly knew the meaning of. Kari Lloyd delivered a litany of grievances. Some I had sympathy for, but nothing suggested that she should be a councillor. Not voting.
Simon Gibbs - "Independent" (as above)
Simon was the most coherent of the anti-everything bunch, with loose idea of a future city, but more of a "why don't you tell me" vibe. Generally opposed to current events. Didn't give the impression that he could be a functional councillor. Not voting.
Barbara Hay - TOP
A really interesting vision, climate-centred and pragmatic. A Stokes Valley resident, she spoke of her work there and how it could spread outwards into the city. The first candidate to speak of amalgamation with Upper Hutt, as a positive and necessary step. Toss-up.
Karen Morgan - Independent
Bursting with energetic passion, in desperate search for a project. A clear vision of a youthful, dynamic city centred around wellbeing hubs. But it felt like council would not be the place for that passion, and it would be crushed by bureaucratic processes like a flower under a bulldozer. A real shame, but I didn't get "councillor" vibes. Not voting (but a shot at toss-up status still).
Simon Edwards - Independent
Another incumbent councillor, Simon really impressed me with his knowledge and a clear, cohesive vision of the city. Spoke about RiverLink and its potential to transform the city into one that embraces the river, and spoke very cogently about the challenges of an equitable adaptation to climate change and the risks of managed retreat. Voting.
Gabriel Tupou - Independent
Massive "young Winston Peters" vibe from Gabriel (I only met Winnie once, but you don't forget it). Big, bold, charismatic, and endlessly ready to talk. I didn't, however, get a clear or coherent vision from Gabriel. He spoke in detail about what the city was, but couldn't really express what it could be. I've seen some of his written stuff, and if he can be nailed to a simple answer, he gives a good one, but it's a hard road to get there. Ultimately, the more I talked to him, the less I thought of him; taking him from voting to Toss-up.
Karen 'Kaz' Yung - Independent
Kaz floored me, like a lightning bolt of electrifying passion and vision for the city. She wove a beautiful vision of interconnected, vibrant communities. Her background is in activism, and it showed as she expressed a vision of political engagement that would work within, without, and transcendently through the existing institutional structures. I was left with stunningly clear picture of a future city and the pathways to get there, the perfect answer to my question. Voting.
Mike Fisher - Independent
Mike is a Petone resident. Also standing for re-election to Petone Community Board. Mike was Petone focused, answered from a Petone lens, based on the interesting work happening in Petone for the future of Petone, like the Petone master plan. Did I mention Petone? Seemed a bit lost upon finding himself in deepest darkest Naenae. Not voting, but I absolutely would if I lived in Petone for community board, a staunch advocate for his community, which you have to respect.
Rob Macdonald - Independent
Rob struggled with the "where do you see the city in 30 years" question, admitting he wouldn't be around then anyway. Tried to present himself as an empty vessel by turning the question back to me. Not convincing. Not voting.
Peter Fraser - United Hutt
Peter surprised me, with a very sharp mind and a really detailed vision. He spoke of the transformation of Lower Hutt from one dominated by heavy industry, to a semi-service economy, and spoke coherently and passionately about the potential to transform again into a high-tech manufacturing city. He described eloquently how that could look for Seaview, how the transformation of industries would change the flow and shape of the city, and how to take advantage of that. Later described to me as "in the wrong party". Can't disagree there. Toss-up.
Prabha Ravi - United Hutt
I didn't get to speak to Prabha. She apparently didn't rsvp, turned up an hour late, refused to join the process and instead gummed things up by randomly inserting herself into conversations. Later, I heard a rumour that her business model is essentially ripping off the Indian community. Not voting.
Tony Stallinger - United Hutt
I didn't get to talk to Tony because his party colleague (above) disrupted the flow of things. He's also standing for mayor (below). Not voting.
Mayoral Candidates
Because of the disruption caused by Prabha Ravi, I was left without anyone to talk to, but Campbell Barry jumped in to chat with me (apparently he hadn't been invited originally as it was council candidates only, but because Tony Stallinger is double-dipping as mayoral & councillor candidate, Campbell was able to come along to give a short speech). Tony gave the first speech:
Tony Stallinger - United Hutt
Tony has a reptilian demeanour, which triggers alarms in my monkey brain. His rallying cry of "things are mostly fine and correctly done but could be done slightly better in some ways" is not a potent one. He clarified that rates do need to rise, necessarily, but some of the increase could possibly be avoided (without specifying how), which seems to differ from his party's stated position. At best, described as a "bland technocrat". Rumours of him running a toxic work environment when he was CE of council. Not voting.
Campbell Barry - Labour
Aside from our chat, which was very personable, Campbell gave a solid speech focussed around the institutional change that the council had been going through under his mayoralty, from dysfunctional to functional, how that was flowing through to tangible changes on the ground in Naenae (pool, community centre, town centre) and all around the city. Spoke of the need to continue both the institutional and tangible revitalisation of the city, in a practical and grounded way. Voting.
So that's it. Congratulations to any that made it to the end, hopefully this helps Hutt dwellers. I know some members of the Naenae reddit community were there too, in case people have heated (dis)agreements with my interpretations.
By - mmp36
It's great to see Kaz up there on the "vote for" list! I met her over a decade ago now (wow I feel old) and TBH haven't really kept in touch. But she stuck out to me even then as someone who really cared about people and she wanted to personally take action, where as a teen I was more of a "someone will surely fix it" and she was "that someone could be me". We're facebook friends so over the years I see the odd post on my feed where shes trying to do something helpful, usually environmentally focused. Probably not worth too much but wanted to throw out a random endorsement, I remember her as a good person who genuinely cares and makes effort to do good, I'd like to see what she could do given the opportunities a council seat provides.
She is the real deal.
Kaz Yung is an absolute asset to council and deserves a spot!
I wasn't there last night, but I know some of the candidates pretty well and you've summed them up *perfectly*. I used to work with Mark and yeah, the mumbling is his stand-out feature. This was pre-pandemic so I never had the pleasure of that particular brand of crazy. Josh is genuinely one of the best blokes out there - he's lovely and so is his family. I had the toss-up between Hay and Tupou as well...I'm happy with who I selected but it honestly could have gone either way. Campbell got my vote - Stallinger didn't have a chance. He keeps going on about how Campbell hasn't meaningfully engaged with the community, but I couldn't agree less. The consultation has been genuine and effective, and far, far better than it was under Wallace.
I follow United Hutt and Mayor Barry on FB. The Mayor spends all day in the community. Tony spends all day not replying to FB posts but taking every opportunity to say the current council is bad.
Excellent summary. I was massively impressed by Kaz, loved the way she got the groups back into order after Prabha rudely interrupted the format. Barbara Hay is a tricky one but she won me over. Passionate , experienced, and capable, impressive track record with diverse community projects and a mind as sharp as tacks.
In case it helps anyone, some of the anti-everything folk got together and helpfully published a flyer together. They are: Simon Gibbs (Council at Large and Petone Community Board), Daniel Reurich (Council at Large), Kari Lloyd (Council at Large), Mark Atkin (Council at Large) and Tracey Buick (GWRC). Just in case you needed a starter list of people to not vote for.
Good point, I got the flyer which is why I grouped them together, but forgot to mention that!
Glad to see Paris Winiata's name is not there. No ones got time for his and Destiny's dodgeyness.
I was at the same school as Campbell Barry and while he was a couple years ahead of me and we had minimal interaction he always remembered my name, even 10 years after finishing he ran into me at work a couple of weeks ago and still remembered me.
Not saying this applies to Barry at all, but just in general remembering peoples names is a pretty easy way to get people to like/respect you and isn’t actually an indication that someone is a good person or anything. Toxic political types can be great at making people feel valued in personal interactions.
Your getting downvoted but you're completely right. No idea if this applies to Barry, I'm new to the area and know nothing about him.
Thank you, I feel validated in my political opinions! Great to hear Kaz Yung impressed you, she’s a genuine contributor. She’s a volunteer at the breakfast club at Randwick school and involved with a lot of other community work in Moera and Petone.
Being a Moera local I know who she is but didn't realise she was running. I really hope her decision to not put up hoardings hasn't scuppered her chances.
Yeah I hope so too. If she misses out this time maybe she needs some non cor-flute hoardings next time. If she’s elected though she might have proved they really are a waste of resources!
What ever happened to the "Hutt News"? This used to be brilliant for election coverage, now we don't even get a copy in Petone. . Is it still published? That might be the reason for non-delivery. With the last election, they couldn't even be bothered to publish the results or cover the campaign.
Simon Edwards was the editor, but gave it up to be a councillor (two terms ago). His departure from that role may explain the drop in quality and delivery, because he came across as very smart and switched-on. Probably a net gain for the city overall.
He was made redundant in 2016 as the Australian owners decided to drop local politics, local stories and coverage of Council and the Community Boards, and concentrate on repositioning the "Hutt News" as a run-of-the-mill rag. The odd thing about this is that the NZ owners Fairfax sold it to later have continued their policy of printed rubbish each week. .
Ahh thanks, I didn't know that.
I also live in Petone and we still get our Hutt News every week.
They stopped delivering to Korokoro.
Just checking my answers with yours and got most right :)
Hehe - me too!
I'm glad to hear that :)
Great summaries! I've been agonising over who to vote for and many of your picks align with mine. Although I haven't quite ticked my six I'm confident I'll run with Yung, Dyer, Norton, Edwards, Hay & Tupou. If there are any Central Ward voters out there here are some appropriately biased summaries: *Glenda Barratt- Independent United Hutt* Big no. Glenda is one of the old guard and brings all the baggage that you might expect with that. Over the years that I've been engaged with Council she (and I say this not to be nasty, just a genuine observation) has provided almost nothing of value. She did used to chair the Council's Accessibility and Inclusiveness Subcommittee and she continues to raise accessibility issues (good!) but I'm yet to see her be a proactive and effective operator within Council. She also does not live within the ward :( **Not voting.** *Steve Hockley- Independent* I had never met or heard of Steve before this election, although your experience would quite likely be different if you're a small business owner. Steve is a business coach and works with BNI although his community and Council involvement appears limited outside of this. I had a good chat to him at the Central Ward 'It's in the Ballot' and he is considerably more conservative than me but generally seems approachable and well considered. Views around housing intensification and sustainable transport don't align with my vision of the future but I didn't get a whiff of him being in an anti camp- opposing things for the sake of opposition. He has completed the [Policy.nz](https://Policy.nz), Gen Zero & Vote Climate surveys and has committed to the Living Wage unlike the other two Central Ward candidates. He has consciously positioned himself as a member of a potential Council team with good understanding of the business community, whilst acknowledging his weakness in other areas. I appreciate that and feel I could work with him as a representative. **Voting.** *Faran Shahzad- Independent* Faran works as a patent lawyer and ran in the previous Central Ward by-election so has a degree of profile. He is young, bright and, at the previous election, presented as having done his research and put thought into the future of the city. He should have been a natural choice for me but has proven to be entirely absent at this election. Faran hasn't been at any Meet the Candidates events that I am aware of and hasn't filled out any of the various surveys mentioned above to assist voters. Some of his communications this election make it appear that he doesn't fully understand the distinction between city and regional council roles (not sure that's a biggie, we need better cross-council cooperation). Faran is likely most closely aligned to me politically of the three candidates but the lack of presence and accessibility is a big issue to me. **Not voting.**
Also, Glenda pledged to support the living wage prior to the election in 2016, then when the council was voting on it voted against it. I emailed her at the time to ask why, and essentially it boiled down to the fact that she was raised in a low-income household and she turned out fine. I question her integrity to be honest. She wouldn't represent her constituents, she'd represent her boss, who would be telling her how to vote.
Disappointing, I didn't realise that she'd previously pledged support to the Living Wage. Unfortunately that's about on par with my estimation of her. During the 2016-19 triennium she was the only Cr to never once vote differently to the Mayor so I think your concern is well grounded.
And she voted to keep ratepayer funded meals for councillors. Classic.
She campaigned on behalf of ratepayers as opposed to residents, immediate no from me because she gave off a massive "fuck the poor" vibe as a result.
This is exactly my thoughts on the central ward candidates as well. Steve Hockley is more conservative than I would ideally vote for, but Faran has been entirely absent at the in-person events and so has lost my vote. I’ll be voting for Steve.
Thanks, I appreciate the addition of Central Ward candidates!
Thanks for this! I was looking at my voting papers last night playing ‘try to avoid the nutcases’ with as much info as I could find but this will help give me some more perspective. Glad to see some of my potential choices performing well
You're welcome. I think the speed dating format really made it feasible, if they were standing up giving 4 min stock speeches I think the task would have been much harder. Also, the election is "multi-candidate first past the post" the utterly worst of all possible voting systems, which makes choosing the final slot much more difficult. Vote STV!
We had the choice to choose STV 2yrs ago, I was a lonely vote in support of using STV for this election. Majority chose to run a referendum to inform the next election which: 1) confuses the voting paper even further 2) still risks an unfair system being used next election if people stick to the "easy" option of ticking boxes. My Daugher can rank things from good to bad, it's not hard.
Wow! It's actually **scary** how spot on your summaries are of everyone after just 4 minutes with each person! As a candidate myself (thanks for the endorsement) I know most the other candidates well from weeks of campaigning together, and you've absolutely hit the nail on the end. Ka pai to your question, and skill to decipher each candidate into a few sentences. I just did a live stream on Facebook and talked about your great question last night before I even saw this summary. Thanks for coming along.
You’ve got my vote. Your communication on Facebook on council policies has been excellent and informative. Additionally the rubbish rollout was needed and makes me wonder how backwards other cities are for not doing it!
Thanks, and it was a pleasure, although I fretted that my assessment of you was too harsh - you earned your place in my top 5, without a doubt.
Na think it was a fair reflection. You were my 3rd to last person so my voice was going and your question was the deepest one of the night so took me a moment to gather my thoughts 😂
You have the best signage. Both Cambridge Tce Brady's gave me the biggest fright the first time I saw them up! Crack up
Great review. I don’t know what it is about the hutt but every election it seems to get worse and worse on Facebook. The community page has been bombarded with posts attempting to sling mud in every direction and the United Hutt candidates come across as bullies. Certainly not helped by Milne/Shierlaw etc being major knobs……
Also not helped by the main admin of the community noticeboard who is himself a failed politician
I got banned from the two biggest groups for arguing with sheirlaw and Rex, and it's been so nice not getting caught up in the online dramas anymore!
There’s a much more peaceful community group called Hutt Community Group
"Generally opposed to current events" ,lol, that's a great line that I'm sure I will reuse
United Hutt are anti-everything. They are also anti-government which is a problem considering that councils need to work with government about laws and stuff being passed. (The housing intensity thing is a major and three waters!)
Thank you from a fellow Naenae resident for a clear, articulate rundown of the candidates! Great question to ask them, rather than delving into specific issues - I love it. It seems like my values probably align with yours, based on your reviews so the 'bias' is helpful to me haha. I wasn't sure about the likes of Kaz Young and Chris Norton so I'm really happy to hear more about them. I have only got as far as my "absolutely not" list at this point.
>Thank you from a fellow Naenae resident I swear every time I encounter a cool person on the internet from Lower Hutt, they are living in Naenae. There's tens of us! >I wasn't sure about the likes of Kaz Young and Chris Norton so I'm really happy to hear more about them. One of the things that made me *more* confident in my picks was whether I felt like those people could work productively together, whether there was a mix of council experience (Briggs, Edwards, Dyer) and new entrants (Norton, Yung) and ultimately whether they were going to have a long-term perspective to current problems. I'm glad I have been able to help!
Ooooooh, I'm on the intergooglewebnetdotcom and I'm from Naenae! Do I get to be cool too?!
Clearly we need to form some kind of cool kids' club (showing my age, obviously)
I'm totally not cool as evidenced by my ridiculous joy in meeting a fellow Naenae Redditor in real life.
I'm in naenae and I've run out of coffee - this morning is fukt. Good candidate write up, kinda matches the vibe of their written blurbs in the pack too.
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Let's see if a decaf takes the edge off while I wait for the household to wake up - last time I went out with the kids still asleep they thought I'd left them
Urgh just watch the new butcher. Apparently he's got a thing against the previous Olympic guys that were there... blaming them for his meat being rotten or something 🙄
Absolutely!
YUSSSS.
That's cool to hear - it's all very well voting for who we want to vote for but if it just so happens that we vote in a group of people with diverse opinions and priorities who might gel enough to be productive and have robust debates that challenge ideas rather than individuals then what they can achieve could be pretty great
We need a Naenae Redditor meetup after the election...
Location? The subway sounds good.
We can host a pot-luck lunch or something! We're in Kowhai St, and I promise we're relatively normal. :)
Uhm uh, it's not the cemetery tho right?
Nope! It's two cemeteries.
Oooh potluck. Can pretend to be from Naenae? I'm actually a couple of stops further down the track but that's practically Naenae, right?
Naenae South right?
Yeah, that's it.
Also I'll get joy out of being referred to as a cool person for quite some time, so thanks internet stranger! Side bar, what do those of us who live in Naenae call ourselves? Or is that the first order of business when we get this club going?
His summary of Kaz Yung is **spot** on!
Brady-shaped billboard enters the chat....
I doubt it. She's a fruitcake.
Your misses runs the United Hutt coms mate, settle down keyboard warrior
What does that make your bat shit crazy wife then champ?
Oh man, can someone do this for Wellington city.
This is a fantastic overview. I went to a candidate korero a couple weeks ago and most of my votes align with yours for the same reasons (although I’m still dark on Josh Briggs for voting against the birthing centre while on the DHB).
The birthing centre funded by the Wright Family who also fund Sean Plunket's The Platform.
I don’t know a lot about Prabha other than she asks to be paid cash for her dance business. Don’t want someone like that anywhere near council money.
Thank you! A really helpful (and readable) overview.
This is an amazing break down of each candidates - kind of a bit spooky in a way though as your thoughts towards each candidate and who you will be voting for completely mirror my voting paper as it stands 😳 I’m still currently one undecided and it will be between Hay, Morgan and Tupou. Leaning towards Hay as I voted TOP in the last election.
I am choosing not to vote Morgan as I heard she was not giving up her position as a principal, and while I think the experience of being a principal would be very useful for informing council decisions, I don't think someone can do justice to both those roles.
Ah I didn’t realise that - yes would definitely count me out for her as I would want somebody focussed and committed to the role. A shame as I think anyone that can successfully be principal of a low decile school like Taita would make a good voice around the table.
I considered voting for her but then I found a Dominion Post article from November 2020 about the Taita College sex education advisor who groomed and had sex with a pupil. The fact that concerns were raised about the relationship and no action was taken until the boy's family finally laid a complaint with police was enough to put me off voting for Morgan, who was of course principal at the time.
Most councillors have part or full time jobs/businesses. $54k for a councillor role means that for some people, tossing in their job is not an option.
Great reviews. I think you’ve given Gabriel Tupou more props than he deserves with a “toss up” tho.
Oh yeah? I still need to decide on those toss-up options, got anything that might help me? :)
I found him quite disengaged, not sure he wants to be there as much as others want him to be on Council.
Thanks, I did start to get a feel that it was more a "career move", rather than a burning desire to make a valuable contribution, but I struggled to get a good read on that.
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Wow, that's awful.
I worked with Peter years ago and have a huge amount of time for him. Brain the size of a planet and genuinely motivated to make things better for ordinary people. I regret I live in Wellington so can't vote for him, but if I were still a Huttite he would be top of my list.
I think he's done himself a bit of a disservice by aligning himself with the 'Independent but somehow still United Hutt' brigade. I'll give him a thought next time if he stands, but I'll have some questions. Having a brain the size of a planet isn't enough for me, they also need to be a functional member of a diverse council and the block that he's aligned with doesn't give me that vibe much.
THIS!!! \^\^\^ 👏 He 100% would get in if he was running independent. I think he doubted himself, and thought he needed United Hutt's support, but as you perfectly say he's only done himself a disservice. If he does miss out, I hope he runs again in three years as an actual independent candidate. He'd be a great addition
He's the current secretary of the Maori Council and very involved with his iwi - he's very used to achieving results with diverse groups of people with competing aims. No idea why he's picked that group tbh but I have a lot of faith in him as an individual.
I was impressed by him and his intellect but sadly not who he's aligned with. Bet he's great on project teams though. Would love to see him turn against the United Independent lot and use his brain for better things.
Peter is an exceptional mixture of brain, knowledge, experience and Māori! Totally running with the wrong crew but I voted for him anyway as he would be a valuable asset to the city.
Going by reading his blurb alone he seems to invested in other areas to be truly focussed on Lower Hutt.
What was Ravi’s problem? How odd that she wouldn’t participate properly
I went to school and knew Brady well. He’s a good person and motivated. His community engagement is great as well
Yeah, Brady gets one of my votes - he's refreshingly constructive - a real asset in the toxic mud-slingy times we're in currently.
Yup, he was painstakingly optimistic at school lol!
Hehehe.. well I think we're gonna need some optimism this decade. As challenging as the first years of "the '20s" have been, I fear we're in for a lot more in the next few.
I've just been to the Moera version and broadly agree with you. I liked Gabriel Tupou a bit more than you.
Yeah, I don't think he's *bad* by any means and I think he will grow into the role in time.
To clarify, I expect him to get elected. He works hard, he's been super visible on the campaign, and he's got a lot of good attributes. I think he needs to work on showing his vision, but that's something I really care about - hence the bias. If we had STV, I would have probably ranked him 7th, in part because I expect him to do better than some of my other rankings. But in FPP, I don't get that option.
Sorry I couldn’t make it tonight 🤦♂️ if you have any questions for me flick me a msg through my live chat on my website dyer.nz
Shucks Brady, you've got my vote already. I've never met you, but people say good things about you
Thank you for this! Very helpful!
Hoping someone will do this for Upper Hutt lol
The only thing I know about Upper Hutt is that the Jordan chap is a literal Nazi. I've met him a few times and didn't get a weird vibe off him, but he was making every effort to hide his crazy. Please don't vote for him.
I saw that write up in the paper. Jaap is meant to be a super good guy
I actually haven't heard good things about Jaap, or Keith Bennet. A friend of mine who is very, very into local body politics, and has similar views to my own, said to not vote for those three. I'm not un Upper Hutt so I didn't ask any follow-up questions.
Thank you OP. Fantastic run down, doing the needful for us too apathetic to really get a feel for candidates. I have my fingers crossed for someone to take the torch and do the same for Porirua. If already done, please hook me up 🤙
Nice write up. I never bothered meeting the Upper Hutt candidates but I did have a few rules for voting. If there is no statement of issues in their bio, no vote. I also singled out the anti-3 waters and the literal Nazi as a hell no too. Ended up being a small list of ticks.
I’ve ticked and sealed my papers but not yet dropped it off. I wasn’t 100% sure about them all as haven’t had a great chance to engage with ‘meet the candidate’ events. Your votes feel so bang on with mine, I’m going to re-open and compare for reassurance!
>I’m going to re-open and compare for reassurance! How did it go? I'm curious to know because I still haven't ticked the final box.
They were pretty similar - 4 the same and I voted Tupou and Karen Morgan. I’m keen on keeping Karen as I have an unconscious bias and wanted a broader diversity in my votes. I’ve dealt with her as a parent and was impressed. She created a great culture at the school and managing a high school will have transferable skills to council - complex wide issues in your constituency that you need to work with to achieve improved social outcomes. She’ll also have some good bureaucracy experience dealing with Min of Ed. Although she’s green to council, I’m hoping she’s worth taking a punt on. Based on your experiences above, I’m changing Tupou to Norton. They had been toss-ups for me.. I’m in the Petone board/harbour ward so had some other votes too (including Fisher 👍🏼
I won't be voting for any of the wombles you are voting for. These left wing nutters are ruining our city and simply lack basic common sense.
As opposed to the right wing nazis who have their hands in the till?
You might want to do some research on Nazism before commenting: National Socialism (Nazism - from German Nationalsozialismus) is a far-Left totalitarian system, originally created in Germany immediately following World War I, and characterized by a collectivist view toward race. Nazism is heavily influenced by the Democratic Party's Jim Crow laws (that existed between 1880s to 1964) and Indian Removal Act (1830), as well and Progressive eugenics pseudoscience. National socialist ideology does not seek to abolish capitalism; rather it seeks to use capitalism and racial or ethnic identity, as in Nazi Germany and contemporary China and Ukraine, to gather more strength and power to itself.
Wow, you've thrown so many different ideologies, cultures, and history together into that paragraph that its part correct and so very very incorrect at the same time. *slaps knees with laughter* And you tell me that I need to do research 🤣 You can throw around all the names, dates and parties that you want. The thing that makes me laugh is that you think Nazis and socialism and communism are the same thing AND you think they're LEFT! I mean c'mon!! I love how you assume I'm not an expert on the topic. That's seriously hilarious.
I am pleased that you are easily amused.
It's easy to be when you're arguments are so incoherent!!
Is that really the best you can come up with? p.s. "Your" not "You're" ... Amateur ... LOL
Omg you're hilarious, YOUR such a pro at this arguing thing that you pick on a freaking auto-correct, all because YOURE arguments are so flawed that I'm not going to spend my KNIGHT pulling apart over 100 years of intricate history to prove my point.
So why bother commenting in the first place then?
It's Reddit... why wouldn't I comment!!
Won't be voting for any of the current useless pigs that have their snouts in the ratepayers trough. The last three years have been an absolute farce. Any one that wants a continuation of the absolute embarrassment needs their head read.
Ugh whatever Tony, Facebook is that way 🖕
One day you might own a house and be able to vote.
I own two houses. Lots of votes for me. The last three years have been a massive improvement :).
Nah I love being young and homeless.
You sound like you haven't done your research on what came before this current council... you should have seen how much money *they* were spilling in the pig troughs!
Is this everyone who attended? Or were there some candidates who attended who you didn't get to meet/chat to? For me attendance of events like this is a key criteria in my voting.
I was at the event. All of the Eastern Ward (3) and At Large (23) candidates were invited. 2 of the Eastern Ward candidates and 17 of the At Large candidates attended. One of the 17 At Large candidates turned up late and unexpectedly.
Everyone who attended, I didn't speak to 2 (Stallinger & Ravi as noted here). This is also the only event that I've gone to/will go to.
Awesome thanks. I went to one of the two It's In the Ballot sessions for City Wide. The candidates were split over 2 nights, but I asked who didn't attend either and it was Evelyn Joy Richter, Rob MacDonald, Phil Stratford and Tony Stallinger. I was told that Tony didn't attend due to focussing on the mayoral campaign, and separately that he didn't attend due to a death in the family. Not sure which is true, but he did at least respond. The other three did not respond to the invitation.
He did go to the mayor debate for its in the ballot. Couldn't say anything that positively contributed to the questions though. Could tell when he was lying; it was awful. Apparently he got good at hiding funds in budgets as "miscellaneous spending" boinked his secretary when he was on the job as CE. 🤮
So it doesn't sound like that other girl from Unite all the Independentantly thinking Hutt to think as one was there either.. the one with the German/Dutch name?
No, only the candidates listed were there. There's been some other events with more United Hutt candidates (but I didn't go).
Wish Kaz was in my region! She'd have my vote for sure. It's refreshing to see someone with passion for the community who genuinely cares!
I was late with this but great write up. Very useful