I love election campaigns. It’s a time when ideas can be tried out and all of us get a chance to think about them. It’s a time when the lights of transparency are shone on our elected reps; and we deliberate on whether or not they justify us putting a tick beside their name in the voting papers.
I was driving along a road the other day, minding my own business, when I spied a billboard which said something about “no rates increases”. I think it said that. The car in front of me stopped suddenly, so I wondered if I might have got it wrong.
So, when I arrived home, I googled the name on the billboard. There he was and here was the article:
I read this article and I read the normal “my campaign will be on responsible accountability and I will be running on those sorts of issues” type of comment all candidates make. Then a bit further down I read:
“Back to basics and focus on normal infrastructure, road, footpaths, rubbish, sewers, water, parks and reserves, sustainable and environmental issues. We’re not there to grand-stand . . . I am totally opposed to five years of 10 per cent rate increases”.
This is total grandstanding. Nowhere is there a proposal of 10% rate increases for 5 years. So why does he say it? To scare locals who haven’t read the CCC documentation?
My concern is that this sort of campaigning is irresponsible. Put “no rates increases” on your advertising, and suck in people who are struggling with their rates bill. There is no way that this candidate can say “no rates increases” without demonstrating just what he would cut from current Council expenditure, to achieve this outcome. Then we could decide whether or not he is the genuine article or not.
The most important thing for me is that we encourage proper debate. If people are standing on no rates increases, which is a pretty appealing thing for people who don’t want to think about public finance carefully, then tell us all how would you propose to achieve this. Then it is up to the voters to decide how genuine this is, and whether or not this person has the ability to convince over half of the Council to vote with them.
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