A rash of spinelessness

What has happened to Cr Don McGregor?! First off he criticised the Diva's plan to "divest" (i.e. get rid of) community halls. Then he was heard to opine that "It could also be argued that ratepayers were not fully informed on other items voted on in the referendum". Could he have snuck off to some exotic plastic surgery clinic and had a spine-ectomy?

His concern over the lack of information provided to tick-happy voters in Mickey's referenda was motivated by the fact that whilst 75 percent of country ratepayers (who could be said to have some intrinsic knowledge of rural needs) voted against doing away with wards - and thus separate rural representation on Council - the votes of their city cousins (who were given no information on the impact of such a measure) tipped the balance to 53 percent in favour.

That it's taken him a year to realise what Watchers figured out before the first voting forms ever landed in their mailboxes - that a referendum is only as good as the information provided to the voters - we'll leave aside for the moment.

Because Cr McGregor has now done what no other councillor on this Michael Laws-led Council has done before - he's stood up for the people who elected him - those who live in the rural ward.

At yesterday's Strategy Committee meeting he spoke against reducing the number of Councillors from 12 to 10 saying there was "no valid reason" for doing so other than that such a move would be "politically popular". That sounds dangerously like a statement of principle to us.

Pointing out that ten was an arbitrary number, McGregor asked, rhetorically, "why not eight, nine or 11?". Or perhaps just one - Mayor-for-Life Field Marshall Michael Laws? (we said that, not Cr McGregor, though we suspect he may be starting to think it...)

He was supported by Cr Randhir Dahya, who said the reduction wouldn’t provide better decision making. Of course it won't - but then it was never designed to. Ten is simply an easier number for the Mayor to control than is 12, but represents a high enough number so as not to unduly alarm the populace about the erosion of democracy.

Cr Dahya also pointed out that less councillors meant less opportunity for a wider spread of community representation on council.

Of course the Diva immediately resorted to his old refrain - that Council was merely implementing "the will of the people". Sixty percent of people who voted in the referendum agreed with a reduction in councillors and 40 percent wanted numbers to remain at 12.

We've no doubt that's the case, just as it is if people are asked if they want to reduce the number of MPs. Because what springs to mind when asked that question is whether people are happy with the ineffective, greedy, scheming, lazy, stupid or just plain bewildered nincompoops who seem to make up the majority of people who manage to get themselves elected. Could we lose a few and not suffer? You bet we could.

Which neatly avoids the real question (just as it was designed to do) which is, what can be done to ensure that these people perform their duties properly once they're there? And how can we ensure a better quality of person gets elected in the first place? This isn't the place to canvas answers to those questions; but the point is, most people will vote in a knee-jerk way for a reduction in the numbers of elected officials, most of whom they see as ineffective for various reasons, and especially when they're unaware of the negative effects such as reduced public access to decision makers, less opportunity for talented people to contribute, less diversity, and so on.

However Cr Marty Lindsay soon came riding to his boss's rescue in a scene which wouldn't have been out of place in "Brokeback Mountain". Just as the injuns were looking dangerous Marty said, a tear welling in his eye, that voting for a reduction in councillors wasn’t something he wanted to do, but he had to, to honour the referendum result. A brilliant piece of logic, that - only the Mayor is elected to lead (after all, it's he who makes all the running on the issues), while councillors... well, they're just there to do what someone else tells them to do, even when it's against their better judgement.

Hopefully Don slipped him the name of the spine-ectomy clinic.

In the end Council was split, six votes for and six against. Chairperson Dotty used her casting vote to see the motion was passed. Now there's one elected representative who's absent even when she's present.

Note to Mr Maslin: Not a good idea to accuse our firemen of having rashes, especially when the first line of the story opines that they were "probably lucky they didn’t have time to jump in the shower yesterday morning"... If your house catches fire, you might be left scratching.

This follows Saturday's headline: "We can doe trhe job, says community board". UK paper The Guardian is so famous for its typos that it's almost universally known as The Grauniad. It surely can't be long before Wanganui's local rag becomes known as The Crinhocle?

Update (6.40pm): And while we're on the subject of elected people who could well be dispensed with... thanks to Murray McCully's newsletter we're thrilled to report that our bauble-eschewing Foreign Minister the Rt Hon Winston Peters MP has chosen a crack team of Official Observers to... well, observe, we guess... the elections in Fiji. The unfortunate three chosen for this tough, thankless assignment are none other than:

• NZ First MP, former NZ First President and longtime Winston buddy Doug Woolerton. Considering his hand was on the tiller while at least two NZ First party lists were thrown overboard with concrete shoes on, he certainly knows how to spot a dodgy election.
• Susan Baragwanath, just pipped for MP-dom by being ranked number eight on the NZ First list, now given a consolation prize.
• David Major former Salvation Army officer and now a "Polcy Advisor" to... you guessed it, none other than the same Winston Peters.

Aside from Woolerton's list-rigging experience, none of these three know any more about running an election than do you, dear readers - which amounts to how to tick a name and stuff an envelope in a box. And the best part is, you're the ones paying for this week-long Club (Politically) Ded holiday. Makes appointing your kid's godmother to minor position look fairly reasonable by comparison.

And while these three reject the baubles of office in Fiji (forecast temperature tomorrow: 30 degrees), we do hope you enjoy your weekend in wonderful Wanganui, Watchers (forecast temperature tomorrow: 15 degrees. And raining by Sunday).

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