Voters give local government the bird

In the Manawatu Standard tonight is a piece about the current local body elections not engaging the community and postal returns currently being staggeringly low. (PNCC at 16%, Manawatu DC at 18%, Tararua, Horowhenua and Rangitikei all below or around 22%).

Of note is a certain Dr Cheyne of Massey, who says that the reasons for poor turnout are because candidates are mono-cultural and election campaigns are not reaching enough people, particularly young and Maori.

I expect nothing less from someone who is in an academia ivory tower, sucking my taxes from the Labour payroll. Get real! Last I heard, about 85% of this country are not of Maori descent, so the names and numbers look good to me. Is she suggesting a better balance would be that maybe 85% of candidates be of Maori descent?

Anyway, how does she manage to match my vote return to my ethnicity to make such statements? Is there some data sharing between guvmint agencies I do not know about?

I think this is a windup to soften us for more tax pesos to be sent forthwith to Massey to her and her ilk in employment. Especially when she says that "more education was needed to keep people engaged in local government". She also suggests that candidates could do more by using venues other than election meetings. Watch for future candidates to be sent to Massey for 'engaging' training as a pre-req to offering your name to electors.

Me thinks that Joe Voter has had more than enough education, knows the game well. When combined with candidates being full of empty promises, promising the world, the low turnout gives the bird to local government fleecing them further.