1. CHB Council has just reviewed its spending plans for improving the district’s
water infrastructure, deferring some projects considerably. Do you support this
approach even if it delays important improvements?
I do support this approach. It is never ideal to delay important improvements, especially for environmental reasons such as getting wastewater out of our rivers, but affordability has proven to be a more pressing problem. I don’t want us to stop now, but we do have to slow down. In doing so, there have been some priorities or assumptions made, including that having safe drinking water is non-negotiable – “drinking water compliance will not be compromised”. There is still a lot of work ahead, but there are hard trade-offs between dealing with the underinvestment of the past and keeping services running for today and tomorrow. Part of that has been debt funding so the cost is spread over more than one generation (but brings the added burden of debt servicing). The council needs to continue to make those hard decisions, but I will do my best to make sure we’re continuing to invest in core infrastructure.
2. Name 2-3 specific CHBDC projects, policies or spends over the past three
years with which you personally disagree.
There are some decisions I have not agreed with, and there are decisions I know others didn’t agree with, but that is the joy of democracy.
3. Do you support construction of the ‘new’ Ruataniwha Dam? Do you believe
Council should invest ratepayer funds in it?
The Tukituki Water Security Project is a private enterprise. Council has no funds to put into any dam building, but I support the economic, environmental and health benefits that water security could bring, particularly if it makes our town water supplies more resilient.
4. CHB seems on its way to becoming Hawke’s Bay’s solar capital. Do you
support that development?
I’m in favour of investigating or utilising renewable energy sources. I don’t have an issue with solar development if it meets the necessary rules and guidelines.
5. Do you believe councils’ rates should be ‘capped’ by legislation?
I do not believe councils’ rates should be capped by legislation. We already spend 44% of our rates intake on water and 36% on roading (evenly between BAU and recovery). One project could throw that out of proportion. A rating cap could constrict a council’s ability to invest in essential infrastructure when it is needed or stop it properly looking after local assets such as libraries or swimming pools in years when the budget hits the cap. New Zealanders spend much more on tax – is central government suggesting capping its tax take?
6. Do you personally support retaining Māori seats at your council table?
I support retaining Māori seats at our council table as asked for by those on the Māori electoral roll. I saw a quote last week ‘diversity is our strength, not our weakness’. I think having mana whenua around the table in a way they wish to be there, is paramount. Māori electorates in Parliament have been around since 1867. Māori wards in local government aren’t new (2001), they’re just new to our council.
7. Does Hawke’s Bay need five councils, or do you support amalgamation, in
any form?
I supported amalgamation when we had that vote, but localism has increased in importance for me since then. We need to share more services – as we already do with things like payroll and website servicing – rather than amalgamate, so we keep our identity and our local choices but reduce the cost of duplication. Regarding the choice of a regional CCO for our drinking and wastewater services, the sooner we get this lifeline infrastructure investment away from a three-year political cycle, the better.
8. Would you support Councils appointing an independent “Hawke’s Bay Auditor
General” to monitor councils’ spending and programme performance?
No. We don’t need more bureaucracy on top of long term plan, annual plan, annual report and independent audit, as well as the CouncilMark/Te Korowai process that benchmarks us against other councils nationally.
