Speech notes from my campaign launch
Tena Kotou Katoa, Talofa Lava, Kia orana, Malo e Lelei, Faka lofa lahi atu, Bula Vanaka, warm greetings to you all and thank you for being here today.
I acknowledge and Ngati Toa rangatira as the mana whenua of Porirua, under whose cloak we are all under here. I’m committed to strengthening the partnership between the Porirua City Council and Ngatitoa if elected and developing an economic partnership between our two groups. Porirua doesn’t succeed unless Ngati Toa does.
I thank Darren Hughes and Nopera Dennis-McCarthy for their words. I wanted Nopera to speak because I think it’s vital to showcase the upcoming young talent in our city. His mixed heritage of Maori, Pacific and Pakeha ancestory is a brilliant example of our city and country’s future.
My politics are well known and I’m proud of them. But I think the real strength of Local Government – and particularly in Porirua City is being able to work across the political spectrum for the greater good. Talofa Lava to Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, our MP for Mana and Kia ora to Hekia Parata our resident National List MP. I know you all have busy lives so I’m really pleased you have been able to take time out and be here with us.
Welcome also to my colleagues on the Porirua City Council, Mayor Jenny Brash and councillors Henry Smith, Ken Douglas, Denys Latham, Tim Manu, Sue Dow, Euon Murrell and Sue Dow. We collectively understand the need to work together and your precense today is a symbol of that. It doesn’t mean we always agree!
Also here with us are Porirua’s representatives on the regional council, Barbara Donaldson and John Burke. Kia ora to you both. And we have visitors from Wellington City Council, my particualar friends — Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon and his wife Jenny and councillor Helene Ritchie. Having a relationship with neighbouring cities is going to become more and more important.
I’m really proud to be standing for Mayor of Porirua City, the place where I was born, raised and educated. In my lifetime this city has taken extraordinary steps forward and transformed the lives of many residents in the process. We have enjoyed housing growth, become a retail desintation for the whole region and we have seen our name improve hugely, both inside the city and out.
Over the next decade we face a whole new set of challenges. They include the pressing need to restore the health of our harbour, the discussions relating to possible local government amalgamation and the need to push unashamedly for further economic growth statrting with a revitalisation of our city centre – with the end aim being more local jobs and a more vibrant city heart.
My family – not just the ones up here – who I pay tribute to for their support and patience, and many of our wide family – are proud to be from Porirua. My grandparents came here in the early 1950s to a State House in Mungavin Avenue where Nana still lives today. They raised their three boys in a terrific community and sent them to local schools where they received not only a great education, but a schooling in real life in a diverse community. Porirua has been my family’s city of opportunity and I’ve been fortunate as the next generation to have also had an upbringing in a place surrounded by superb natural beauty and a strong community.
My political philosophy centres around ensuring that our city continues to deliver opportunities to progress the lives of its residents through being safe and healthy that delivers the same opportunities my family has had to everyone.
My aim for continued economic development does not come from some dry dogma where greed is good. But rather the understanding that only through a great education and decent job opportunities, do we get real social progress.
I’m committed to ensuring that a new council leads a revitalisation of our city centre so that the next stage of Porirua’s growth can take place. If elected Mayor my aim is to secure another 1500 white collar jobs here.
We can’t change the perception by simply knocking down buildings and re-routing streets. We need new enterprise, new thinking and new jobs right in the heart of our city. I will leave no stone unturned to find was of attracting employers – big and small, priavte and public sector to set up shop in Porirua.
We also need to address the way we interact with public transport as a city centre and to ensure that vehcile traffic moves more readily in and out to our suburbs. We need to develop our unique brand as a modern, multi cultural, artistic and entrepreneurial 21st century New Zealand city at the cutting edge.
I don’t agree with a lot of what the council has come forward with so far. I believe our city centre must be re developed for our citizens – in all their diversity. We must also encourage people to live in our city centre so that we have a 24 hour vitality and a perception of safety here.
The council and new Mayor need to be the facilitator of this work, but in most cases not the doer. If this change can’t fly without the market doing a significant amount of the work, the council simply can’t afford to carry the can. As Mayor it would be my job to create the environment for employers to invest in our city and encourage change – but that doesn’t mean Council – and ratepayers - should take a financial risk on the lion’s share of what needs to be done.
Our image as a city is important to me. That’s an understatement. I think about it everyday both at work and home. It’s personal, it’s about my heritage and about our collective self esteem. I’m proud of Porirua and every part of it. It’s part of who I am.
I hate seeing our city, our home maligned by the media – particularly when we have unfortunate press coverage that seeks to play on all the negatives of our name – Porirua – when there are so so many positives.
So if I am fortunate enough to be elected as Mayor you won’t see me jump on the ‘poor us’ bandwagon. I’ll fight for job opportunities, better social services, better resources for our schools and hospital and housing at every opportunity. But I won’t do that by just talking about what is wrong or by drawing unessesary attention to the poverty that does exist here.
We need to be pumping our city up in the media, not continually dragging it down with negativity.
We are not a social experiment for Wellington beaurecrats or an example for the bleeding hearts to draw attention to and feel sorry for. Every time we are mentioned negatively in the regional and national media, outsiders views – mainly negative, are reinforced and hardened.
Why does that matter, you may ask?
I’ll tell you.
Because it makes it harder for us to attract people to visit here, to shop here, invest here, and do business here. Those are the things that grow our city. And it puts people off wanting to live and bring up their families here. Every negative news story makes it harder to secure wins for the people in our community who so desperately need them.
The theme of my campaign is ‘Value Porirua.’ That represents both the values we hold dear as a city – our harbour, our landscape, our people, homes and history. It reinforces that Porirua City needs a Mayor and council to understand those values and work towards ensuring they are supported and enhanced at all times. A Mayor must be able to bring value to the job. He or she needs skills in working with people, developing relationships, selling the city, controlling the bureaucrats, listening and responding to residents and their everyday needs as a community. And the Mayor must be able to articulate a progressive way forward.
It’s not lost on me that Transmission Gully will be one of the greatest changes for Porirua – and potentially one of our greatest challenges. We have to be connected to the Gully and we must ensure that we get the benefit of much of the growth it will bring. At the same time with growth, we must also protect those natural landscape features that once lost are gone forever. For me that’s our ridgelines and hilltops. The very landscape that attracts people here, sustains us when we look out of our windows from every part of the city. Protecting those and our harbour are non negotiable for me.
We must also focus on value for money for our rates. Getting the best bang for our buck. We face another significant challenge with our infrastructure, particulary what’s under the ground – like our sewerage pipes. We know that a good proportion of these are coming to the end of their natural life. One of the most important jobs for the new Mayor and council will be facilitating the community and council discussions that lead to this large asset replacement programme – particulary the timeline of replacement and spread of costs.
Make no mistake. This is an important issue. If we don’t’ provide these vital and important basic services correctly, ‘the nice to have frilly stuff’ is all for nothing. Pot plants and pavers aren’t much use if the pipes don’t work!
Currently because of broken pipes and the connection of a lot of our homes stormwater pipes to their sewerage system – our pump stations and wastewater treatment plant can’t cope in heavy rain. The infiltration of this additional huge volume of water has a really important linkage to the other issue I mentioned earlier, the state of our harbour. Because it’s our harbour and waterways that face the full brunt of this problem. The good news is we know that it’s current poor health can be reversed and it can again be the food basket of Ngatitoa and continue to be a safe aqua playground for our whole community and a healthy estuary of worldwide significance.
Housing development over the decades has been quite rightly blamed for the siltation and poor health we are now faced with. But as I flagged, because of improper connections and poor workmanship, we are faced with real problems today. I’m confident that any future development will be monitored and that the checks and balances are in place to ensure that development per se is not the cause of further damage to the jewel in our crown.
Bill Clinton has a saying that I find really applicable to Porirua’s situation. “Change is inevitable, progress is not.”
There is going to be change in Porirua on October the 9th as Jenny Brash steps down after 12 years as Mayor. Jenny, it would be a brave person who says that the city isn’t better off now than when you first became Mayor and I salute you for incredible capacity for work on our behalf.
While Jenny’s retirement will bring change, it could put the continued progress of Porirua in jeopardy. This will be one of the most significant change elections for our city.
The city has a clear choice. I’m offering a new face, yes a younger face but not one without experience or ideas. I’m prepared to challenge orthodox thinking on issues that confront us and I’ve got the ability to practically apply solutions that best suit our needs – both today and tomorrow.
I’m eternally optimistic that Porirua City can continue to grow the opportunity and the value it brings to the lives of its residents, whether you are young, old or neither. We do have to confront some harder questions however about the future of the city as it currently is and of the wider Wellington reigon.
First and foremost I’m from Porirua City. I think I’ve conveyed that to you adequately! But I’m also a Wellingtonian. I understand that the economic powerhouse of our region lies 20km in that direction. The Wellington CBD. We can’t and shouldn’t compete with that or underestimate its value to our city. It’s in our interest that Welllington City, the Hutt, Kapiti and the Wairarapa do well too. In fact we need every part of our region to progress as we want to.
Up until recently we have had about 8 Council areas that were more like impenetrable islands with clearly defined borders that they were desperate to protect. Not much inter island discussion went on. Slowly though we are beginning to see a de-frosting of attitudes between our councils – they are actually talking now and have agreed to sharing some services and most importantly to commission an independent review of regional governance structures. These discussions scare some people, naturally. “Porirua will lose its independence, the Hutt will have no control over its rate levels, we will all be saddled with Wellington City’s debt.” Natural concerns. But I have to say that an arbitrary boundary on a map drawn by a boffin 50 or so years ago doesn’t define my community. It’s the people that do.
The amalgamation question isn’t scary for me. Because I’m not contemplating ‘amalgamation’ as such. Ken Douglas drills into us the old design maxim that “Form Follows Function.” The Wellington region has to decide the best ways to deliver the functions desired by 400,000 plus residents. That’s no simple task. But only at the end of that process will the form begin to appear. The problem is that people have rushed off and started to design what it all might look like in their heads before any consideration is given to what we might need and how we can improve on what services and strategy we have now. So I am open to discussing what is best for our city and our region. That will take some time to explore and it needs to be a conversation that the whole community is involved with.
If I’m speaking for Porirua I won’t forget the aspirations of the residents of this city. And at the same time I want to state really clearly that Porirua can’t afford to be the victim of change, we’ve got to be a leader in whatever change occurs so we can ensure progress for our people.
There is almost a victim mentality amongst some people that live here. I think they think we’re seen as the poor cousin. I don’t. We do sell ourselves short at times. We have superb talents in our city in the arts (some of them are here with us now), culture, sport, design and enterprise. These need to be better shaped into economic opportunities that promote our very best assets – which are once again our people and our landscape and harbour.
Not only do we have to attract external exisiting business here, but we also have to nurture and develop our own talent and ensure that coming generations have a platform for success. Going hand in hand with that is ensuring that our education is top notch and that we emphasise the importance of all kids here having access to technology (Computers in homes – 1000 placements!), traning, appretiships so that our community can provide services and enterprise to support itself into the future.
My message is that you will get change and progress with my style of leadership. I don’t have a pause button. You won’t always agree with me, but please be assured I have a philopshy rooted deeply in the need for progress of Porirua. But, if you are looking for the Mayoral candidate who is going to promise to cut 15% off your rates bill, you are looking at the wrong person. Please, nobody leave! I can direct you to the candidate who will tell you that, see me afterwards for her name and phone number.
‘Cutting and Slashing’ never works for a Local Authority. Delivering outcomes smarter does, getting value for money by looking at the ways you do things and asking hard questions about changing those ways certainly does. As Mario Cuomo, former Governor of NY said famously, “You cannot multiply by dividing or add by subtracting.” He was so right. We want to do things better, get greater effecincy and continue to build off the obvious successes in our city. We’re standing in one of those successes now. But slashing isn’t the answer. This does not mean that I want to spend with reckless abandon, quite the opposite. We need tougher measures on what we spend and the cost of what we as a council do. I’m on record against frivolous spend ups. We cannot afford to waste ratepayers money and there has to be real measurable value in every activitiy the council is involved with. The community requires that transparency so you know that you are getting value.
You will notice today that I have tried to confront some controversial issues rather than sticking to the easy ones. I’ve learnt from history and my years on council that the hard questions don’t go away. Our city needs leadership, not drift and you, the voters and ratepayers, need to know that you have a Mayor who is tough enough to stand up and articulate a progressive vision for the future.
I want to be a Mayor that is part of a council and community that works in partnership to take Porirua forward with confidence in the next step of our journey. I’m humbled by the number of you who have turned out today to help me launch my campaign to be the next Mayor of Porirua City. After a decade as a Councillor, six years chairing a standing committee and career in commercial property, I believe I am ready to step up. I’m asking everyone here today to please be an active part in Porirua’s journey. Above all, people need to participate in this fantastically frustrating thing called democracy. That means, get out there, support decent people for elected office, encourage your friends to vote.
Remembering Bill Clinton’s great quote, “Change is inevitable, Progress is not.” We need the right choices to be made in October to ensure Porirua isn’t a victim of change, but rather a definer of its own progress and success.
We are a young city with a bright future and it is important that we take this opportunity to stand on our own two feet and value Porirua.
Value our families, value our schools, value our neighbourhoods, value our community assets and most importantly value our city.
If you value strong leadership and you value Porirua, then please join with me and support my campaign.
Thank you.
