Post by Kiwi Frontline on Mar 29, 2019 5:51:27 GMT 12
Hawkes Bay Today 29/3/19
UNELECTED MEMBERS SHOULDN’T VOTE ON COMMITTEES
Making decisions about the direction of our community is the responsibility of those councillors we elect.
I am a passionate supporter of democracy and will stand up for all people to protect their democratic rights. I am also passionate about equality. There should be no sector of society who has less or more rights than the next person.
For that reason, I am totally opposed to unelected members voting on council standing committees.
Making decisions about the direction of our community is the responsibility of those councillors we elect. Good or bad, they are the decision makers we have elected for three years.
I fully support sectors of our community having non-voting representation on standing committees and would support Maori as one of those sectors. But I am totally opposed to non-elected people voting on issues that affect the residents and ratepayers.
It is bad enough that the faceless bureaucrats manipulate from behind the scenes but when we allocate voting rights on a race-based structure, then democracy falls.
Will we allocate unelected seats on council to Catholics because they make up a large percentage of our population. Of course not and neither should we allocate seats based on racial grounds.
It is also a slight on Maori to suggest that they are incapable of garnering support for their own people and getting them elected.
We are fortunate in Hastings that we have some excellent Maori councillor representatives so, if you want more of them and have them on standing committees, then vote them in at the elections at the end of this year.
To make these “appointments” before the election at the end of this year is an unacceptable manipulation of democracy.
STUART PERRY, Hastings
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
UNELECTED MEMBERS SHOULDN’T VOTE ON COMMITTEES
Making decisions about the direction of our community is the responsibility of those councillors we elect.
I am a passionate supporter of democracy and will stand up for all people to protect their democratic rights. I am also passionate about equality. There should be no sector of society who has less or more rights than the next person.
For that reason, I am totally opposed to unelected members voting on council standing committees.
Making decisions about the direction of our community is the responsibility of those councillors we elect. Good or bad, they are the decision makers we have elected for three years.
I fully support sectors of our community having non-voting representation on standing committees and would support Maori as one of those sectors. But I am totally opposed to non-elected people voting on issues that affect the residents and ratepayers.
It is bad enough that the faceless bureaucrats manipulate from behind the scenes but when we allocate voting rights on a race-based structure, then democracy falls.
Will we allocate unelected seats on council to Catholics because they make up a large percentage of our population. Of course not and neither should we allocate seats based on racial grounds.
It is also a slight on Maori to suggest that they are incapable of garnering support for their own people and getting them elected.
We are fortunate in Hastings that we have some excellent Maori councillor representatives so, if you want more of them and have them on standing committees, then vote them in at the elections at the end of this year.
To make these “appointments” before the election at the end of this year is an unacceptable manipulation of democracy.
STUART PERRY, Hastings
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers