Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jul 9, 2020 10:48:23 GMT 12
Northern Advocate 9/7/20
VOTING RIGHTS UNDEMOCRATIC
Susan Botting, Local Democracy Reporter reports (RNZ 29/6/20) that “Hapū on a Whangārei District Council Māori input governance group are working to strengthen local democracy participation by shifting from being a governance group that recommends on council matters of relevance to local Māori to one that instead has voting rights around the decision-making table”.
It is an oxymoron to state that democracy is being strengthened by ushering in unelected appointments onto Council with voting rights.
Maori appointments with voting rights to Council should only be approved through a referendum of voters since such an arrangement changes the balance of voting away from representatives elected by the community to take into accounting voting by self-appointed vested interests that do not have the benefit of the wider community at heart.
These race-based appointments cannot be validated or questioned by the community in any way, once appointed they cannot be overturned by a public referendum and they cannot be voted out and inherently support “the hand that feeds them” i.e. their tribal sponsors. This can lead to serious bias, rampant greed or even corruption.
Wake up Whangarei, giving aristos of iwidom voting rights equal to our elected Councillors is a blatant undermining of our tried and true democracy.
GEOFF PARKER, Kamo
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
VOTING RIGHTS UNDEMOCRATIC
Susan Botting, Local Democracy Reporter reports (RNZ 29/6/20) that “Hapū on a Whangārei District Council Māori input governance group are working to strengthen local democracy participation by shifting from being a governance group that recommends on council matters of relevance to local Māori to one that instead has voting rights around the decision-making table”.
It is an oxymoron to state that democracy is being strengthened by ushering in unelected appointments onto Council with voting rights.
Maori appointments with voting rights to Council should only be approved through a referendum of voters since such an arrangement changes the balance of voting away from representatives elected by the community to take into accounting voting by self-appointed vested interests that do not have the benefit of the wider community at heart.
These race-based appointments cannot be validated or questioned by the community in any way, once appointed they cannot be overturned by a public referendum and they cannot be voted out and inherently support “the hand that feeds them” i.e. their tribal sponsors. This can lead to serious bias, rampant greed or even corruption.
Wake up Whangarei, giving aristos of iwidom voting rights equal to our elected Councillors is a blatant undermining of our tried and true democracy.
GEOFF PARKER, Kamo
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers