Our Opinion – Candidates campaign on open workshops

For this paper, it is significant that the issue of public access to the local board’s closed and confidential workshops has become an election platform for this year’s Hibiscus & Bays Local Board candidates (see story in Election lift out guide).

Weekly confidential workshops came in with Auckland Council – prior to that, all presentations by council staff were made at meetings that were open to the media and the public.

Workshops include briefings by staff and the circulation of information relevant to decision making. No Minutes are kept and public access is not permitted. Our big beef with this is that issues that do not meet the criteria for a confidential discussion can be discussed by staff and elected members with no public or media scrutiny.

Hibiscus Matters has been seeking public access to workshops since 2014 – it was voted down by local board members in September 2014, November 2015, June 2017 and August 2018.

This election, opening the workshops was made a priority by candidates from Coast People and Penlink First, and this soon turned into an issue that all candidates wished to have their say on.

The local board’s current deputy chair Janet Fitzgerald and chair Julia Parfitt, who both say they favour transparency, have consistently voted against open workshops. However, in this election, they are championing a new system that eliminates workshops entirely, making all meetings public.

There are eight members on the local board – four from Hibiscus Coast and four from North Shore (Bays). Most, if not all, of those standing for the Hibiscus Coast subdivision say they are in favour of ending closed-door workshops. A lot will therefore depend on which four candidates for the Bays subdivision get in and how they vote.

Elections are always interesting times for journalists. We’re aware of course that the general public may not follow the ins and outs of local politics as closely as we do, and the voting turnout reflects that. However, your local newspaper gets another perspective as we see politicians at work when we attend meetings, and we also interview, or even just chat, with them fairly frequently on a wide range of issues.

Their decisions have a big impact on the community. With this in mind, I would urge everyone to vote – lift out our election guide from this issue, attend local meetings to hear what the candidates have to say about things that are important to you and make your choice. It really does matter.