GO VOTING

Anyone driving north of Kaeo on Sunday 22nd September might have seen that the NO MINING sign on the hill opposite Kaeo bridge briefly read GO MINING. 

I am reliably informed that later that same day a certain Far North District mayoral candidate was spotted in the Whangaroa pub with paint on his hands. 

Asked, “What about the whenua?” he replied airily, “Oh, people don't even know the issues when they say, 'what about the whenua?'"

So what are the issues?  Well, according to the paint-stained candidate, the first issue is that we are faced with a stark choice between jobs or the whenua. 

He is partly right in that any mining activity will create some jobs.  But, unless very large and multiple mineral lodes are found, those jobs won’t be long-term and they won’t be for locals.   

The second issue according to candidate paint-stain is that Whangaroa harbour contains four times the amount of mercury than it should, which means there’s also likely to be gold in ‘them thar hills.’  Again he is partly right.  But he also told my informant that the area involved is unlikely to be larger than two football fields.  Maybe he was just trying to get her mind off images of Waihi-sized holes in the ground.  But if his estimation of size is accurate, then that’s more bad news for job-seekers. 

The third issue he put to my informant is that Whangaroa already has mining in the shape of the china clay deposits at Matauri Bay.  Therefore, he inferred, there should be no objection to more mining for other minerals in the area. 

That’s like telling recreational fishers, look you’ve already got commercial fishers catching fish, so you shouldn’t object to more of them arriving to take more fish.  As an argument it doesn’t really hold water, does it? 

When my informant first told me about her encounter with the painting mayoral candidate, I laughed.  I mean, seriously?  He painted GO MINING on the whenua?  What a clown.  But today I’m looking at the voting returns for the current round of elections, and it’s not funny at all. 

We’re on our way to another record low voter turnout; barely 30% this time.  That means, even if we did get a wonderful mayor and council out of the process, the huge majority of voters are totally uninterested, turned off and disengaged anyway. 

When I look at what we’ve had leading us for some time, I can understand why people might not feel like bothering.  But given that local government will still influence what, where and how we do a lot of our living in the foreseeable future, it’s a shame.  Especially when there are some fine people standing for mayor this time; the painter excluded. 

Unsurprisingly his handiwork was undone within 24 hours.

Rather than GO MINING, he should have painted signs that simply read GO VOTING.