by Geoffrey Churchman
It was no surprise: while Crs Holborow, Buswell, their protégé, young Sophie Handford and Elliott were always going to vote for it, there were mild hopes that James Cootes and Rob McCann might reject it, but it was not to be.
I arrived at 9:15 am yesterday for the marathon session which began at 9:30, but was told that the public seating was already “chocker” and they could not put any more chairs in for “health and safety” reasons. So I headed home to watch it online, not a fantastic experience as you only get a fuzzy picture of the council table and the backs of the public speakers’ heads. Another problem is that after refreshment breaks the live stream does not automatically reappear; you have to keep refreshing the page manually.
Much of the seating at that point was allocated to the mayor’s iwi friends who at one stage gave an approximately 5 minute long haka, which suitably impressed young Sophie who stood up and began dancing along.
Some of those who Mr Maxwell had paid to produce favourable reports for him came along to support what they said, but there were several opponents who also spoke. The result was that inclusive of the breaks, public speaking was still underway at 2:30 at which time I had another meeting to attend.
At about 5:30 came the Councillors vote: the opposition was led by Gwynn Compton who pointed out that the visitor numbers and economics simply didn’t stack up. But “wellbeing” and other ethereal, nonsensical notions held sway. Rob McCann might like to consider how many new social housing units could have been bought for $4.6 million and would have provided actual wellbeing to their tenants.
Siding with Gwynn were Bernie Randall and Martin Halliday as was always expected. There was a reasonable chance that the present Waikanae ward Councillor would be swayed by the views of the WCB members to join the votes against and that’s what happened.
So, the present mayor will get his legacy anti-colonialist white elephant, although exactly what it will consist of is not yet clear. In the meantime, Eva and I like the rest of Kapiti ratepayers are going to have to find our compulsory annual contribution to pay for it, in addition to the thousands of dollars we already have to pay for Mr Maxwell’s bureaucrats and consultants…
To correct your assumption, I was not influenced by the views of other members of the board, as I made my decision on the information before me.
The ‘mandated iwi’ acted in a blustering, bullying manner. They monopolized proceedings and were given carte blanche to conduct themselves in any manner they saw fit.
A council employee explained that the ‘mandated iwi’ are ‘given precedence’ (sic); her words verbatim.
Much of the seating was reserved for the ‘mandated iwi’, most of whose presence was not essential. Their sudden burst of haka was patently intimidating to the group of about half a dozen women seated immediately behind, not least because the chairs were being pushed into their legs, and the haka proceeded without regards to this.
While many were excluded from the chambers because of ‘health and safety’ no consideration was given in regard to the nature of this haka. Should any of those who were obviously intimidated wish to lodge a complaint to KCDC I will support any such move with a sworn statement of what I clearly observed. (I am sure Mr/Mrs Churchman will forward any such communication to me).
The opening reference to the Treaty of Waitangi and alienation of Maori from most of their land was presumably supposed to establish a moral superiority over council and objectors to the scheme, and to underscore the generosity of the ‘mandated iwi ‘ in ‘gifting’ the name Uruhi (aptly meaning ‘assail, drive, compel, impose’) to the gateway for which we are once again supposed to acquiesce in servile gratitude.
There are, as one should expect, a significant number of councilors, whom I suggest would automatically vote in favour of any issue that has the endorsement of the ‘mandated iwi’ regardless of objective merit and burden to the ratepayers
Clearly theres no thought of limiting council rates increases for those who pay them. I cant believe there are many people who would be happy with anything other than a nil increase.
Spoken like a true white man Mr Bolton. PS cost per ratepayer $3.70 per year- read the report. Hardly thousands.
A passing allusion to rates is hardly the premise of my comments. Other than that, I’ll accept the comment in the spirit I know it was intended.
My paternal grandmother came here as a Bryant & May match girl from Bethnal Green, my grandfather as a merchant seaman, who later worked at the Gear Meat Co. My antecedents in NZ from the maternal side go back to 1840 from a working class couple who had to start from nothing, like most settlers. My apologies for such ‘white privilege’, and the lack of self-loathing.
It should be stated that there are local Maori who are flatly opposed to it also — Mana whenua (who were represented by Chris Webber) and Ngatiawa ki Kapiti.