Napier Mayor Bill Dalton, never one to mince his words, talks about the pure arrogance of some amalgamation supporters...
A fellow made comment on my Mayoral Facebook page that demonstrated clearly the mindless position that many supporters of amalgamation have taken.
No thought, no research, no sound arguments to counter mine, just arrogant implied criticism of me. It is almost as if these people see supporting amalgamation as the trendy position to take.
Clearly the leaders of the pro-amalgamation lobby are trying to paint a picture of themselves as the only ones in the province who know the answers. As somehow being superior to the rest of us mere mortals. And many of their followers support them because that's a status they aspire to.
I often wonder if many of these people have thought through what Hawke's Bay would look like if we were amalgamated.
As mayor and mayoress of Napier, Shirley and I are out and about in our community every day. One morning we took one of the vintage cars out to create atmosphere for the cruise ship visitors, we attended a day at the Pukemokimoki marae and that evening we attended the CJ Pask Great Long Celebration. The next day we attended the Earthquake survivors afternoon tea where Shirley will sing and spoke.
We feel very much part of the community we were elected to serve.
People come up to us wherever we are and want to discuss our city and our community. Usually it is complement us on the way Napier is kept clean, how our gardens and parks look great and the job we are doing. Of course there are criticisms and listening to them and where appropriate acting on them is also part of the job.
Just imagine what it would be like in Wairoa or CHB if we amalgamate.
How often will those rural towns see their Napier or Hastings based mayor? How often will the people right across Hawke's Bay get the opportunity to interact with one mayor serving over 150,000 people in a geographically diverse province? A political patch that takes three and a half hours to drive from one end of to the other.
Think of the proposed representation for our rural areas. Two councillors representing Wairoa and two representing CHB. Will the Wairoa councillors commute day after day? Will they find it easier to stay overnight in motels or hotels? How accessible to the people of Wairoa will they be then? How long do you think it will be before they get absolutely sick of the Wairoa road and decide to shift to Napier or Hastings? What happens to Wairoa representation then?
It is very clear to me that most supporters of amalgamation haven't really thought through what Hawke's Bay would look like if we were to amalgamate. They have been blinded by the ridiculous claims being made by the leaders of the campaign. Unsubstantiated claims of huge savings, greater efficiencies, and as weird and wonderful claims as reducing hazardous use of alcohol and teenage pregnancies.
The sad fact is that the very real examples of the failure of amalgamations are not only not being studied, they are being ignored. At a typical ABHB event – a cocktail party during the week – the pro-amalgamation lobby trotted out a fellow to preach to the converted on how wonderfully successful the Auckland amalgamation has been. Any one of us could trot out hundreds of people who could demonstrate quite the opposite and I know there are hundreds of thousands of people in Auckland who could attest to the failure of the Auckland amalgamation to live up to its promises.
If we are silly enough to support the appalling amalgamation proposal currently before us we will be no different. A province that has been promised plenty but delivered nothing. In fact we will be worse off in Hawke's Bay.
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