Such humour, while usually good-natured, skirts past the fact that the democratic principle of one person one vote was a hard-earned right, and one which cannot be taken for granted.
Eschewing the right to vote, whether it be done as a protest, due to procrastination or a sense of it being pointless, forfeits the right to complain about those who took the trouble to exercise the franchise elected in.
As things stand, many Dunedin electors are about to lose their social licence for one of the city’s favourite pastimes — moaning about the Dunedin City Council.
In 2022 just under half of eligible voters in the city had their say about the makeup of the next city council. As things stand, the city was tracking for an even lower turnout than that.
The most recent voting returns for the DCC is an anaemic 15.2%: with today being the last day for postal voting, a flood of in-person voting will be needed by midday Saturday, the deadline for polls closing, for the city to amass a half-way respectable tally of votes. Voters in Queenstown Lakes have no reason to feel smug either: their voting return rate is just 15.3%.
The other councils in the ODT circulation area have a return rate of 25% or higher: Waitaki District Council leads the way at 32%.
Local body elections have traditionally had a lower turnout than general elections, and it is telling that Local Government New Zealand was last week hailing the fact that nationwide it looked like turnout could top the 40% figure achieved in 2022.
That is an absurdly low voting rate given the incoming councillors and mayors will have governance over multimillion-dollar, publicly-funded enterprises which supply many of their community’s vital services. Things like roading, rubbish collection, water supply and street lighting . . . things which people are quick to bemoan if they are not adequately provided.
These things matter. Unlike the sometimes abstract and remote concerns of central government, the goings on at local government can, quite literally, affect you in your own back yard.
The ODT publishes nearly 200 stories a month about local government; they regularly feature in our most-read online list, a sign that people do care.
Decisions are made by those who show up, and right now too many Dunedin and southern voters are absent, at their peril.
The final word belongs to Abraham Lincoln, a man who knew a thing or two about voting: "Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters."
Essential spending
No-one likes to spend money on an unexpected bill, but the $6 million that New Zealand paid Samoa yesterday was a bill which the country absolutely had to pay.
The remittance of 10 million tala to Samoa was made on the first anniversary of the grounding and sinking of the New Zealand naval vessel Manawanui.
The recriminations and legal ruminations about that embarrassing and expensive incident rumble on, but Samoa could not and should have to wait for compensation relating to the potentially environmentally catastrophic sinking in its waters. Foreign Minister Winston Peters was right to say that New Zealand would respond to the government of Samoa’s request in full and with good faith.
To be a good neighbour New Zealand had very little choice but to do so — not that the government would have had to think long or hard about this: it was, simply, the right thing to do.
The Manawanui saga is not over yet. Quite apart from the aforementioned legal issues, the bedevilled vessel remains under the Samoan seas and a threat to the country’s shores.
Mr Peters said New Zealand would continue to work with Samoa on decisions around the ship and its future, and so we should.
Thus far, in no small part thanks to ongoing co-operation between Samoa and New Zealand, the very real threat of disaster has been averted. It is inherent on New Zealand to continue to play its part in these endeavours, and yesterday’s payment was a vital part of that.
