Hamilton East candidates unite against staggering rate rise

Saturday, 27 January 2024

Frustration against the incumbents at city hall has become a campaign mantra for every candidate standing for Hamilton’s East ward by-election.

Countering rising rates, council debt, and myriad road works across the city dominated every candidate’s speech on Thursday.

Each of them promised a firm stand against the proposed 25.5% rates increase and a pause on “wasteful spending”.

Angst against raised pedestrian crossings, in-lane bus stops, and 15-minute city also surfaced during the night.

But how they would fix it remained unclear for many candidates.

Of the 16 competing for the council seat in Hamilton East, 11 took part in the “meet the candidates” to put their campaign notes to an audience at Chapel Hill Community Church.

Debt was the focus for Horiana Henderson.

John McDonald read various sections of Local Government Act and reminded the audience of the function of a city council: “a legal entity with the purpose of collecting contributions from property owners and responsibly using those funds to manage the common property and maintain the functionality of its infrastructure”.

“We need to guard against agendas which were developed in distant cities being imposed on Hamilton with little regard for the views of our people or the practicalities of the local situation.

“These transformational agendas were developed in cities such as New York, London, Beijing, Amsterdam, Brussels and Geneva.”

For Tony Tang, working as a councillor was about giving back to the community.

He said debt was one of the biggest problems the council was facing and it needed to be open-minded to solve it.

His three main agendas were to attract more technology companies with AI background to Hamilton, upgrade Hamilton airport to international standards and promote a solar power system to fight climate change.

Horiana Henderson was standing for the third time and criticised council debt.

If elected, her immediate action was to identify ways that council could reduce spending and advocate for the residents who ultimately pay for its decisions.

Jose Gonzalez works in local government and told the crowd he specialises in transport.

Leo Liu only wanted to give back to the city and committed to donating 100% of his councillor salary to charity.

Jose Gonzalez highlighted his expertise in policy planning and work with local government for six years.

“I grow increasingly frustrated in council committee and governance meetings… I'm not seeing people who care about the public's well-being while their profession is to be in the public sector.”

Gonzalez said cutting capital projects would not make a dent in the 25.5% rate rise, but council needed to look at the “operational cost of labour funding levels and central government deals”.

Tim Macindoe said the council “cannot keep dipping into the ratepayers’ pockets in the way that we”.

He also pointed towards using developer contributions to increase revenue.

“I specialise in transport, and I can assure you we can get way better value for money.”

Tim Macindoe, former Hamilton West National MP, said the idea “we can carry on as we are burying our heads in the sand to me is totally unacceptable”, as council debt currently sits at $850m and “rising rapidly towards a billion dollars in a city with fewer than 200,000 people”.

Macindoe said there was a lack of governance and professional skills around the council table.

“And that must change.

“Council needs to be looking for alternative sources of revenue because you cannot keep dipping into the ratepayers’ pockets in the way that we are and expect that that is going to solve our problems.”

Anna Smart was not a fan of the Hukanui Rd in-lane bus stop.

Jacobus Gielen promised to promote “open council meetings with no hidden agendas, encouraging community consultation through participatory democracy”.

Protecting our assets and better bus services would also be provided, he added.

“As an anti-corruption candidate, we will make it an offence under the Local Government Act 2002 for New Zealand local government elected representatives to breach a legally enforceable code of conduct.”

Anna Smart was “compelled to stand” because of genuine concerns around decisions made by the council and strongly advocated against the $1,050,000 in-lane bus stop at Hukanui Road.

Postal voting opened this week - papers can be returned by post or dropped at ballot boxes around the city. Saturday February 17 is the formal final election day.

Voting packs for the Hamilton East Ward by-election were delivering by post to electors from Friday.