My Account
Around 65 people came to hear candidates put their case for election at Manly Bowling Club on September 18.
The meeting was hosted by Business Whangaparāoa and all candidates for Albany Ward and the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board (Hibiscus subdivision) were invited. The turnout of 15 candidates was the biggest yet.
Questions written by the audience were drawn from a hat and included an issue not raised at earlier local meetings – the local impacts of climate change.
Regarding what could be done to mitigate these, Victoria Short said it will be important to push for Council’s targeted climate change rate to be spent fairly across Auckland, including on things like electric buses and decarbonisation of the ferry fleet. Wayne Walker said involving the community and businesses more effectively would be key and Jake Law said advocating for better infrastructure (such as stormwater) would be important for community resilience, as well as supporting those affected by things like sea level rise and flooding. Alezix Heneti also noted the need to support communities affected by the impacts of climate change.
John Davies wants to see the Ōrewa seawall (HM September 19) and other coastal mitigation measures happen faster.
Other questions put to candidates included Kainga Ora’s proposed social housing in Millwater. Gary Brown said the scheme was “unfortunate” and that it was hoped that Kiwibuild could be put there instead. John Watson said it was unfair to foist it on residents after they had bought into the area. “We need affordable housing, but that’s not the way to do it,” he said. “It should be zoned for.”
On the other hand, Ed Amon supported the social housing, saying that talk of increased crime was ‘scare tactics’. “That may have happened elsewhere,” Amon said, “But that’s not a reason to scrap it – just to improve and properly implement it.”
Among those candidates were two who are also standing for Mayor – Gary Brown and Alezix Heneti. Questions put to them included co-governance of the Hauraki Gulf (these views were in the September 19 edition) and the government’s 3 Waters reforms. In the audience was Mayoral candidate Craig Lord, who was in the area to repair a broken election sign and decided to attend the meeting on the spur of the moment. He was asked to speak, and, like Brown, was against 3 Waters. He said if elected, his focus would be on core services and “turning Council Controlled Organisations, such as Auckland Transport and Watercare, upside down”.
Results at your fingertips: Hibiscus Matters will publish the local results and interview any new local board members or Councillors, on our website from October 8 and follow up with anything of particular interest related to the election in our October 17 edition.
