Past controversies nixed Hawkins’ by-election bid
Let's deal in facts, not excuses.
Dunedin has a population of roughly 133,000, with about 26,000 students — yet even within that base, Aaron Hawkins never commanded anything close to broad public support. The numbers speak volumes: barely over 4% of the population backed him on first preferences initially, rising to only around 6% after multiple rounds.
That is not a mandate, it is a ceiling. In fact, those figures are entirely consistent with his past runs for office, reflecting a long-standing, limited appeal rather than any sudden electoral misfortune.
His tenure was not undone by some mythical "smear campaign". It was shaped — and ultimately defined — by his own record.
Ratepayers grew tired of what they saw as a single-cause politician who struggled to deliver on the basics. Core council services — bread-and-butter governance — were not managed with the competence or focus expected.
None of this emerged overnight. The dissatisfaction was longstanding, visible, and well-documented.
The result was not a shock; it was an inevitable conclusion. Voters didn’t turn against him — they confirmed what had been apparent for years.
[Abridged: editor]
Democracy in action
Aaron Hawkins’ attempt to blame a supposed "smear campaign" for his by-election loss is not just unconvincing — it is a transparent effort to avoid accountability.
Voters in Dunedin did not need shadowy conspiracies to make up their minds; they judged what was in front of them. And what they saw was a former mayor whose performance failed to inspire sustained confidence.
This was not a sudden collapse engineered by unseen forces. His support had been eroding well before any alleged negativity became a talking point. He was simply not as popular as mayor as he appeared to believe.
Perhaps the most ironic twist in this entire episode is the role of the electoral system itself. The Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, promoted as a fairer and more representative democratic process, ultimately contributed to his defeat.
If anything, STV did exactly what it was designed to do: reflect broader voter sentiment more accurately. The result was not distortion—it was clarity.
To now suggest the outcome was tainted by a "smear campaign" is to undermine both the intelligence of voters and the integrity of the process he once championed.
This was not sabotage. It was democracy working — uncomfortable, perhaps, but entirely legitimate.
Local decision making
Someone once said: "It’s crucial that this is decided by communities, not central government."
That someone was Christopher Luxon in 2021 when he was criticising Labour's local government proposals. The hypocrisy is, sadly, not surprising from this government any more.
The recent ultimatum that Dunedin City Council must take on the Otago Regional Council's duties, and must amalgamate with at least one of our neighbours "or else'’ is sure to cost money, and it’s us, the ratepayers, who will be forced to pay for something we didn't ask for and don't get a say on.
Any amalgamation will inevitably lead to local people getting less of a say on what happens in our communities. How much more power can this government try to grab before November's election?
[Dave Bainbridge-Zafar is the Opportunity Party election candidate for Dunedin.]
The facts of life and the intergenerational swindle
Susan Johnston (Letters 14.5.26) wrote that going into debt for tertiary education was "a fact of life".
This has only been a "fact" for 40 years or so.
Student debt has been a deliberate policy choice by successive governments to pay for the ruling generation by driving their children into debt. So it goes.
What I found particularly galling, however, was the helpful suggestion to "just choose something there is a demand for". Well, no, because demand now doesn't mean demand when they graduate.
This helpful advice is for 17 and 18-year-olds to know the labour market's requirements years ahead.
In these volatile times, when even multinationals get it wrong.
And then there are the health or other challenges between first year and graduation that can scupper the best-laid plans of teenagers.
But at least we don't pay capital gains tax on the houses that the next generation can't afford to buy.
They predicted the labour market wrong when they were just out of school, so it's obviously their fault.
Anything to excuse the intergenerational swindle that's student debt, I guess.
Free trade, but it’s not that free
It is a tragedy to see Dunedin Furniture closing — 17 skilled jobs going — after so many years.
Elsewhere in Friday’s paper (8.5.26) Ray MacLeod lists 16 manufacturers that have closed in recent times. I can think of others, and you can think of more.
Meanwhile our farmers tell us that they "feed the country", but we find our supermarkets stocking inferior American butter, the chips with your fish probably come from Eastern Europe, the flour in your bread probably comes from Australia.
Only time will tell where our frozen vegetables will come from now Watties is gone.
And we have 160,000 unemployed, not counting those who have dropped out of the system completely.
The BBC tells us that in India the small farmers are terrified for their livelihoods because of cheap New Zealand agriculture.
The same agriculture which is destroying our environment: nitrates with your water anyone?
Why is it that when our governments, of either party, promote "free" trade agreements they never talk of either the impact of cheap manufacturing on our industries nor the impact of monoculture agriculture on our environment?
It doesn’t have to be like this. Trade yes, but not "free."
Protect our industries to provide jobs.
Protect our consumers so we can actually eat good New Zealand produce, so the farmers’ claim of "feeding the country" has truth in it.
But with Labour now coalesced with the coalition, who do we turn to to stop this insanity?
Faith and politics
To Glenn Hardesty (Letters 9.5.26). The melding of politics and Christianity is at least as old as Rome. Each molds itself to the other to maintain power.
Today's Christian nationals are as yesterday's slave-owners, willing to contort "coherent truth" and sacrifice lives to ensure their control.
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