The Orange Man
So only 32 per cent of us bothered to take the time to, and to be interested enough, to vote.
Richard Steele
I don’t understand the apathy. Love or hate local government, the effect district and regional councils will have on us all for the next three years will be profound. Yet 68 per cent of us couldn’t be bothered. What that says about us is more than I can determine, though I hope that no members of that 68 per cent club do any grumbling over the next three years.
I do get that government can be boring. Fixing roads and water, and sewage treatment, may not be as exciting as many things we have to do. It’s just that they are the important functions that enable our communities to continue.
I’m going to propose this term that local government has lost its way. Even more, I’m going to propose that local government is no longer fit for the purpose it was designed to service.
That almost every council in our great little country only survives by increasing our rates annually is in my opinion an abomination. It shows a huge lack of business acumen and is unsustainable in the medium to long term.
With that cost plus mentality there is not a business in our country that could survive in the competitive state we work in, but councils do. Worse than that, we give them free rein to do so, by taking no interest in their triennial elections – our only real chance to show them what we really think.
So we get what we deserve in a way, that just about defies logic in my tiny mind.
It’s going to take some time to digest what’s just happened, and to understand the malaise we seem moribund in. I have written so often about the great place we are so fortunate to live in, but still when it comes time to stand up and be counted, we actually stay home in droves rather than get involved. We waste the one time in three years to show what we really think.
Good on you all who have stood or stood again.
Please take the time to reflect on the good of the country and what those few of us who voted for you all can really afford.
We cannot keep paying for the continuing rate increases that have plagued us all in the past, and sooner or later you must come to understand that.
