GUEST BLOG: Kelly Ellis – Sandy Smiles

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The man tapped the glass with his pen at two minutes and I wound up my less than positive comments about the MPs who’d betrayed the Whangarei Electorate.

It’s hard to stay on-message when looking at the state of this town – grim testimony to MPs that have had more interested in sucking on the Party tit than fighting for the future of this battered city.

It’s hard to cram volumes of policy into two minutes. The anger, frustration, desperation and crushing disappointment are more easily encapsulated.

Years of neglect by MPs, flown-in for a turn in a safe National seat are evident almost everywhere, except perhaps in the gated communities that proliferate or around the million dollar houses on the Golden Shore.

The immaculate sandy smiles of blue-water beaches ringed with rows of mostly empty holiday houses. No gaps in the pearly whites here. Not like the rest of the town, which has had most of its teeth knocked out while its MPs have been too busy at the trough to fight back. Like snake oil salesmen, they’re representatives of their party, here in Whangarei to peddle their wares until they’re promoted or sacked.

The disconnect between successive local MPs and their community is palpable. It seems the community is as interested in them as they are in it. The last time the local MP featured in the paper, he was complaining about how someone had written “Free Palestine” in chalk on a concrete wall fronting his elegant Whangarei property. The fact that it would have washed off ten minutes into the 42 days of flooding rain that followed mattered little. The violation of the sanctity of his wall with something so temporary was of greater significance than the blasted babies of Palestine, let alone the hungry glue-eared kids of this town swamped in floodwater.

Career politicians with loyalty to their own interests in Wellington have let this town fall into ruin. “They hate this town,” I’ve blasted out on the PA during street meetings. “This town, you and your kids,” I’ve bellowed. And while it’s an awful, negative message, it makes people want to talk.

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I got asked if “hate” was a bit strong by one listener. I replied that perhaps it was. If a person who had the care of a baby put it outside in the rain, would it be wrong to say they hated her? After all, they might say they simply don’t care. The penny drops. “True,” she responds. We both know that hate or utter neglect result in the same thing.

No MP has cared about this town for decades. Banksie, another fly-in Nat, hardly did the town good service and Heatley’s invisibility is a disgrace. He’s collecting his pay, but he’s treating this town like a National fiefdom where people can see him for $40 a head at a lunch put on by the local Chamber of Commerce.

Forty bucks a head might seem like a bargain compared with some of the prices National’s charged to access politicians, but this is, after all, Whangarei and he is a retiring MP, stripped of his ministerial portfolio before he got even got a chance to jump.

It says it all. While Labour List MP Kelvin Davis has organised donations from New World and the Mad Butcher and had them distributed in my ancient campaign van amongst the flooded, there’s no sign of either Heatley or new candidate Shane Reti rolling up their sleeves. But then National never has in this town and judging by the current complacency, never will.

Reti, a likeable enough fellow, had drawn criticism locally for not fronting up to various fora he’s been invited to. A recent one – the Northland Economic Forum – organised by Alby Barr from the Rail Maritime Transport Union had Russell Norman, David Parker and Winston Peters leading the billing. Of the local candidates, even the dear old fellow from the Conservatives fronted up. The Act candidate was there too, secure in the knowledge that he was unlikely to get a standing ovation from any crowd, let alone this one. Democrats for Social Credit’s deeply conservative candidate was also there to trot out his well-rehearsed stump speech about “creating money from thin air.”

Reti, according to Barr, wrote to him saying he needed to get permission to attend the forum. No doubt the party could see no political advantage in it, so, cynically, he stayed away. But the no-shows don’t even attract the attention of the local press. National’s absence obviously isn’t news in Whangarei.

Not much can be squeezed into two minutes of speaking before the First Union stop work meeting as the man is poised with his pen near the glass. But when it does ring, it’s easy to see that the deep vein of anger is present here among these workers. They see the need for an MP to fight for this town.

But with 30 seconds to go, it’s time to get on the positive message. We’re changing this government on September 20th and I am, indeed, proud to have been part this concerted effort to harvest the votes needed to do this. It’s good to be part of a crew which won’t give up without a fight.

 

 

Kelly Ellis, Whangarei Labour Candidate, former journalist and current lawyer grubs her living from the criminal justice coalface but dreams of being a better parent and more dutiful partner to her long-suffering family.

 

3 COMMENTS

  1. Good on you Kelly!

    Go strong!

    It is very obvious that this govt don’t care, and that everyone but the elite, are becoming more destitute.

    And looking a the 2011 Party vote graph above, well, only 32.3% of NZ voters wanted National to govern. And that says it all really – the fact, that 66.7% of us Kiwis DID NOT want National to govern. And indeed they do not govern at all – they just rip us all off to feather their own personal coffers.

    Bet its hard to find where billions and billions of NZ dollars have been spent in Whangarei!

    Opinion.

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