That future is genuinely uncertain. Every day economists warn of more global economic turbulence and squeezed household budgets yet to come.
But it is hard to take this reasonableness from Lee at face value.
He, like some other councillors, have built a public reputation not as a reasonable contributor to council and community business. Not even as a contrarian which is a respectable role to play in a governance group. There should always be room for those ‘‘black hat’’ forewarners of doom in any group.
The problem with taking, as an example Lee, seriously is that his behaviour too often tips over into the abusive or ridiculous.
It is all well and good for him to seek an investigation into council spending on travel, that is not unreasonable on its face. But it falls pretty flat when he cost the council a substantial sum in legal fees and costs over a parking ticket.
The point is past bad behaviour builds an untrustworthy public reputation. That reputation is very hard to shake loose even when the person is being reasonable. When Lee is the reasonable one, one might begin to think things have clearly become pretty chaotic around the council table. No-one would contest that this term.
This is why our next choice of city councillor is absolutely critical. I know who I am voting for and I’m sure you know who I’m voting for.
It is not about loyalty. It is about record and reasonableness.
More than ever, we need councillors with a record of working constructively alongside current councillors on behalf of the broad sweep of Dunedin citizens, not just wealthy interests.
We have enough of those latter kinds of councillors. Brent Weatherall’s disgusting attack on homeless people is a case in point. He might want to stand in his privilege and cast judgement on people he knows nothing, and cares nothing, about.
Maybe he really thinks like that, maybe he is speaking to a constituency. Maybe he just needs to work more closely with homeless people to help him develop some empathy.
He was, after all, quite capable of changing his mind over the revamped George St, finding pleasure in at least some parts of the design even after making vicious and ad hominem attacks during its development.
Perhaps learning some of the stories of abandonment, institutionalisation and job loss faced by people in poverty might bring him round. I am not holding my breath but I am voting. We need to vote for more reasonableness around that council table.
Our city faces many major issues and they will get worse this year. Mean household income here is lower than the national average.
We rely heavily on major institutions for employment, and they are increasingly squeezed for jobs.
Unemployment is set to rise. This reduces incomes for families and wastes the skills of competent, experienced people in our city.
We cannot afford a council table distracted by the petty or the grandiose. Dunedin has strengths, economic but more importantly community strengths always deliver.
Councillors who belong to those communities will be best-placed to offer solutions for community resilience and the support we need this year.
Experienced councillors with a record of working well with others and achieving their priorities are essential for our city.
We will all get our voting papers over the next week or two. Turnout at a council by-election is notoriously low but do vote.
We are feeling real chaos caused by spoiled, amoral politicians thousands of miles away. The least we can do for ourselves is elect the competent ones close to home.
- Associate Prof Metiria Stanton Turei is a law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party co-leader.
