All candidates should reveal their allegiances

I HAVE become concerned by the amount (and presumably the cost) of advertising incurred by candidates in the impending local elections.

That concern is not lessened by the claims of political bias and bullying aimed at Aaron Hawkins and David BensonPope (ODT, 24.9.19).

There is nothing wrong in stating one’s political allegiance (it’s virtually standard in the UK), so that if a voter is offended by that bias, he/ she can vote for some other candidate.

However, there is nothing good to be said for a candidate who is part of a bloc but does not reveal that fact.

I have no proof that there is a rightwing bloc operating in this election but the sheer cost of advertising by candidates, who appear to have no chance of winning, makes me wonder who has the money for such speculation and why.

I suspect there are people or organisations who are not contesting the elections but have a strong financial interest in the outcome.

It would be useful if all candidates would swear that they are underwriting the full cost of their election and, if elected, would put the interests of Dunedinites first.

Dennis Dorney

Calton Hill

THE move by the ORC staff to ask the ORC councillors to remove water quality standards for six years (ODT, 25.9.19) is disillusioning and cynical.

Cynical because it makes the task of newly elected councillors who intend to follow the guiding principles for regional councils — protection of the environment — that much more difficult. Disillusioning because of the apparent lack of public and sector organisation consultation on the doubling of the time period.

This will likely be the last meeting of the current council, and those councillors retiring will always be able to say, if they agree to the proposal, that this was one of their achievements. R. Grubb

Wanaka WHY is it that party affiliations are becoming so prevalent in our local body elections?

The encroachment of national government party affiliations seems very unusual to me. They have nothing to do with our local government, and they encourage people to vote for the party rather than the person.

It’s manifest to me that either you have such little confidence in your proposals that you rely on the group identity of a party, or you are planning on running as a councillor driven by ideological rules and guidelines, instead of thinking for yourself.

Our councillors should have their own ideas and work based on their own platform. Councillors exist to serve the Dunedin community, rather than the goals of their party.

Independent councillor means independent thinking.

Callum SteeleMacIntosh

Dunedin

OUR soontobeexmayor Dave Cull is running for the Southern DHB and has aspirations to be the chairman.

If he is successful, will that qualify him to remain as president of LGNZ?

If so, will that mean he will be a parttime chairman of the hospital board? Trevor Johnson

Ravensbourne

[Dave Cull replies:

‘‘DHBs are not part of local government, so board membership of the SDHB would not make anyone eligible to be elected as LGNZ president.

‘‘The SDHB chair is already a parttime role.’’]