A list of ills and how DCC manifests them
The Dunedin City Council is a fine reflection of the several ills that currently plague us all.
1. Council is not a business, it is a public service.
2. Whether or not a millionaire has more integrity, farsightedness or intelligence suited to public service than a pauper is yet to be borne out by history. We have been surrounded by contemporary examples of who put the lie to the belief that wealth equals fair-mindedness.
3. Nineteenth century European notions of public service required that the candidates knew right from wrong. Te Ao Māori practises collaboration and building consensus. There are a few on council who struggle to remain objective or recognise that concise politeness is actually the more efficient use of time, something both paupers and millionaires can recognise.
4. Turning the council chambers into something resembling a war zone does nobody any good. It serves instead to discredit the democratic process.
5. Finally, the standard which councillors set themselves for logical, concise, coherent fact-based debate should work to counteract the need to bring the egotistical and wayward to heel.
There are more important events happening right now for anyone to give any councillor credence or a vote for grandstanding.
[Marian Poole is a member of the West Harbour Community Board. Editor.]
Safe and austere
Dunedin ratepayers have absorbed a 17.5% rates increase, followed by another 10.5%. Debt is forecast to pass $1 billion by 2030. Water charges alone are projected to more than double within a decade. And yet rates keep rising while deficits persist.
Any household, business or club running its finances this way would be held to account. The DCC operates under no such discipline.
The standard defence is that council is not a business. That is true. It is something more important — it is the custodian of ratepayers' money and the financial future of our city. That responsibility demands at least the same rigour any of us apply to our own affairs.
Of course the council should not be a business but it acts as one for financial purposes. If anything, it should be more responsible, more austere and safe.
If it was a business it might well be accused of being run poorly. A poor-performing business needs better management and decision making, not more unnecessary spending
I am standing in the by-election not because I have all the answers, but because I believe the question needs to be asked plainly and honestly: at what point does this become unsustainable, and what are we actually going to do about it?
Dunedin deserves a council that can answer that question without flinching.
[Gareth Ottley is a candidate in the forthcoming DCC by-election.]
Pool spruce-up
With regard to the imminent and welcome upgrade to the balustrade along St Clair esplanade (ODT 21.3.26) some much-needed attention to our wonderful outdoor swimming pool within the same vicinity is desperately needed.
A fresh lick of paint around the pool walls, an upgrade to the ageing changing rooms, replacement of missing pool tiles and, above all, an efficient, functioning pool vacuum to extract persistent sand and other debris from the bottom of the pool would be much appreciated.
[Dr Angus Mackay is a candidate in the forthcoming DCC by-election]
Sculptor’s role in Queens Gardens cross recalled
It was of interest that I read the article (ODT 20.3.26) noting the 25th anniversary of the installation of the Celtic millennium cross in Queens Gardens. It mentions how a sculptor got involved who was appalled at the prospect of a plain concrete cross.
The sculptor was in fact the late Stephen Mulqueen, who was instrumental in the design of the sandblasted Christian symbolism on what became the granite cross, and the Māori/settler imagery around its base. Stephen’s most well-known work in Dunedin is his 3m-high macrocarpa and steel sculpture, Kuri/Dog, on the harbourside near the Otago Yacht Club.
In the article’s photo, the plinth depicts an image of the meeting of two peoples — a Kāi Tahu Māori gifting a barracouta to supposedly a European sea captain, under which is inscribed the word, Takatapora, meaning "boat people". The barracouta was a major fishing resource for Kāi Tahu iwi on the Otago Peninsula.
Other major players in the cross’ construction were stonemasons, I Bingham & Co, and Naylor Love Construction.
Seats deliver less, not more
Professor Eketone (Opinion ODT 16.3.25) argues that Māori seats ensure accountability to Māori voters in a way that mainstream-party Māori MPs cannot provide.
But actually, the seats don’t maximise Māori influence.
From the numbers, it’s straightforward. Around 575,000 Māori voters are enrolled nationally, representing about 16% of the electorate. Winning margins in most New Zealand electorates are under 2000 votes.
A co-ordinated Māori vote, distributed across the general roll, would be decisive in nearly every seat in the country. No party could then afford to ignore it.
Instead, that voting strength is concentrated into seven seats where established parties face little competitive pressure to earn or keep it. The result is guaranteed minimal representation rather than leverage across the full Parliament. The current Māori Party behaviour illustrates this point.
Prof Eketone is right that the seats originated cynically, and that settler newspapers campaigned explicitly to limit Māori electoral influence, but that doesn’t change the arithmetic of today.
The 1985 Royal Commission concluded that Māori would achieve better representation through proportional representation than through dedicated seats. That conclusion was reached with the full knowledge of the seats’ origins.
The strongest case for abolition is not that the seats discriminate against non-Māori. It is that they have, for 150 years, delivered far less political power than the Māori vote could otherwise command.
Back to you
Donald Trump just begged the nations of the world to send their navies to protect oil tankers in the Gulf of Hormuz. Funnily enough, after his practice of hitting them with haphazard tarriffs, insulting them and doing Putin's dirty work, they all said you can stick it, it's on you.
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