In my own area of the Otara subdivision, only 29 per cent of eligible voters returned ballot papers – well below the greater Auckland average. And the data speaks for itself: older, wealthier, housed and white voters had a much higher rate of ballot return. That’s what the data tells us so our challenge is to encourage a better ballot return from younger, poorer, transient and brown voters
The case manager looks her straight in the face and says “you don’t look blind to me” then pulls out a piece of paper from her drawer and asks my aunty to read it, as proof that she’s visually impaired. About to explode with rage I sit there allowing my dear Samoan aunty to handle this despicable situation, with the case manager sitting behind her desk, arms folded with that ‘well, go on prove me wrong look’.
Auckland is fast becoming a gentrified city where more and more Maori, Pasifika and poorer families are facing the stark reality of having to leave the city to find affordable accommodation.
The smiling assassin was back at her best yesterday with an incentivised plan to lure Samoan and Tongan families out of Auckland to places where those communities were supposedly growing and strong.
I’ve had a gutsful of the biased media reports that tell us these refugees will only promulgate Muslim ideals, become an economic burden and in the Pacific instance, shouldn’t be here anyway because they’re here illegally.
Race is never a focal issue for white, middle class and privileged groups because society is built on their accepted norms and traditions
Leaving the university for employment in the public service was an exciting move for me taking my love of learning, evidence-based approaches and passion into a policy-setting environment. Well that wasn’t my experience. In fact, my hopes for this role and the reality were worlds apart.
For me though, the best result for the Left was seeing the Labour Party accept and embrace that we needed to vote strategically.
Just prior to going on holiday last year I was fascinated by the Heralds weak attempt to try and set the civic Auckland agenda with a silly poll on possible contenders for the Auckland mayoralty.
There seems to be an agreement amongst those currently vying for the leadership that Labour needs to take up more of the middle ground. These White blokes have said that Labour needs to occupy that political space in order to win the votes of their peers, other White blokes.