Waiatarua Meeting

Last night’s Waiatarua meet the candidates event, was the feistiest yet. I believe Janet Clews being present was a big factor in making a productive meeting. Her quiet yet commanding presence, made this meeting truly constructive. Janet Clews has lifted the lid on a long overdue debate about personal responsibility when in a governance role and the importance not to manipulate public perceptions. Waitakere politics is overshadowed by a continuous debate about saving trees, despite so many other very pressing community issues. The mere act of giving great importance to social and economic community issues should not infer a lack of environmental responsibility. As Carl Harding said at last night’s meeting, everybody in the room cares about the Waitakere Ranges or they wouldn’t have been there. My family incorporated Huia Private Reserve in 1939. I personally placed 25 acres of Waitakere Ranges Manukau Harbour coastline into Regional Park ownership 38 years ago. Carl Harding set up the Karamatura Heritage Farm Trust to help preserve the farming practices of our areas first settlers. To embrace ongoing development of our areas communities, does not make you anti-green. The public is rarely reminded that the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act contains, as one of its Objectives “to recognise that people live and work in the area in distinct communities, and to enable those people to provide for their social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being”. Yet the more environmentally focused objectives are constantly pointed out. Janet Clews is correct, when you sit in an office of governance you have a duty to give equal weight to all the facts, so issues are kept honest.