As you know we’re taking on the Hastings Mayor and her ridiculous decision to give unelected school-kids voting powers on Council committees.
We committed to a full-on campaign to make sure this undemocratic skullduggery (to skew the voting numbers in the Mayor’s favour) is stopped. If Hastings proceeds, this undemocratic practice will spread to the rest of the country.
But we’ve hit a massive hurdle: the owners of the local paper, NZME, are refusing to run our adverts because they might (wait for it) ‘offend someone’.
We did a great stunt outside the Council (the so-called “Bouncy Council”), but that wasn’t quite enough. The Mayor and Council are praying the issue goes away and that the public forgets.
That’s why we put together some high impact, full page newspaper adverts to run in Hawke’s Bay – specifically the local rag, the Hawke’s Bay Today.
We figure the only way to win this is for local ratepayers to express their displeasure to the Mayor and Councillors who voted this through.
Major snag: NZME refuses to accept ads criticising politicians
Below are the concepts our team worked up – that NZME won’t allow to be published.
The ads were designed to drive locals to contact their Mayor and Councilors and demand they start acting like adults (i.e. keep the elected adults as the decision makers).
Here’s a second concept:
Local newspapers now won’t let us hold local councils to account…
You might remember in August, Hobson’s Pledge ran some adverts in the NZ Herald regarding their concerns about ownership of the seabed and foreshore.
That brouhaha saw the Taxpayers’ Union having adverts in the Herald about Government debt being pulled as well.
But now we’ve found out the “no politics” policy isn’t just for the Herald. It applies to every newspaper owned by New Zealand’s largest newspaper stable.
This new censor’s veto for provincial newspapers like the Hawke’s Bay Today, means that local Councils can get away with anything: no one is allowed to advertise to call them out.
So much for the “fourth estate”, eh?
Remember NZME took more taxpayer money from the so-called Public Interest Journalism Fund than any other media company!
They swore at the time that the funding definitely wouldn’t affect their editorial decisions (yeah, right).
How can we raise public awareness if we cannot speak to the public?
The Hawke’s Bay Today, as the local and long established newspaper, has a near monopoly on news in the Hawke’s Bay. We can go to local online publications (the “Hawke’s Bay App” is very good by the way), but only the local newspaper has the reach we need.
And it’s a complex message. We’ll of course use the funds for this campaign for options like billboards. But this message is too long for a billboard.
Remember, the position: This isn’t about criticising those smart kids on the youth council. But we need to able to hold to account the so-called adults on council who have voted to give school-aged kids full voting rights on Council committees.
And, we should be able to speak to local ratepayers with that message, right? Isn’t that what democracy is all about?
We say that, if you take taxpayer money, you shouldn’t be playing politics with who can and cannot run adverts. If you agree, stand with us to get this over the line.
Geoffrey, we know that this decision to refuse our ads in the paper is not the decision of local editors. It’s the millennial newsrooms in Auckland who believe that what can be advocated for is best left up to them. They don’t like pesky advocacy groups like us trying to hold politicians to account. Back this effort to put them in their place.
No one said standing up for local democracy would be easy. But without the ability to speak to voters, it’s damned near impossible. I hope you’re with us on this.
Thank you for your continued support,
James Ross
Policy and Public Affairs Manager
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union