Guru Back, But With 5 New Reforming Councillors

Progress results in the Kapiti local election show sitting Mayor K Gurunathan is back.

Kapiti’s sitting Mayor K Gurunathan wants to keep the job

And the youngest-ever Councillor, climate campaigner Sophie Handford, of Paekakariki, has been elected — with four other new and progressive councillors.

Two of the new guard — Gwynn Compton and Martin Halliday — opposed Gurunathan for the Mayoralty.

Robb McCann is a Labour candidate ( the first on the Council) and a former contender for the Otaki seat in Parliament.

Former Otaki Labour candidate, Rob McCann, in now on the KCDC

Thre results are bad news for the sitting councillors who voted for massive cuts in the libraries’ book budget.

McCann, Handford, Compton, Halliday and Randall all promised to move to immediately to restore the libraries’ book budget.

The detailed progress results are:

Mayor: K Gurunathan

Angela Buswell (District wide)
Gywnn Compton (District wide)
Jackie Elliott (District wide)
Janet Holborow (District wide)
Rob McCann (District wide)
James Cootes (OtakI)
Jocelyn Prvarov (Waikanae)
Martin Halliday (Paraparaumu)
Bernie Randall (Paraparaumu)
Sophie Hanford (Paekākāriki)

Sophie will shake things up

Sophie Handford (18) is a national leader of the School Strike 4 Climate campaign.

She says: ‘Our overarching demand is that the New Zealand Government does everything in its power to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees because that’s the known threshold for livable future on this planet.

We then have five demands that sit under that:

Parliament declare a climate emergency
All parties support and pass an ambitious Zero Carbon Act
The Government ceases all exploration and extradition of fossil fuels
The Government invests in building a renewable and regenerative economy now
The Government gives practical effect to its responsibilities throughout the Pacific

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STORY OF THE WEEK

Kāpiti Coast councillors have toured of one of Aotearoa's unique buildings, the heritage - listed Rotunda at the former Otaki Health Camp, the country’s first.

Jeremy Smith reports that the 105-year-old, eight-sided rotunda predates the Health Camp.

It wasn't actually built in Otaki, but was one of two built in Rotorua in 1915 as part of a military hospital, on the site of Rotorua’s present public hospital.

Later they were taken to Otaki for the opening of the health camp in 1931.

Full story in the main column (December 19).

100 Years Ago — and the Maori Long March begins

Māori politics was dominated by the influential MPs (and sometime Cabinet ministers) Māui Pōmare ( Waitara statue photo above) and Apirana Ngata.

The 1920's also saw the rise of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana’s religious movement, and the emergence of Te Puea Hērangi in Waikato.

Ngata worked hard to foster Māori scholarship and education and preserve traditional arts and culture.

He convinced the government to establish a Board of Maori Ethnological Research (1923), a Maori Purposes Fund Control Board (1924) and a School of Maori Arts and Crafts in Rotorua (1927).

The Reform government also took the first, tentative steps towards settling longstanding Māori grievances.

Agreements with Te Arawa in 1922 and Ngāti Tūwharetoa in 1926 recognised their respective rights over the Rotorua lakes and Lake Taupō, and led to the establishment of trust boards with some government funding.

Commissions of inquiry which examined Ngāi Tahu grievances (1920–21) and the Waikato and Taranaki confiscations (1926–27) recommended that modest compensation be paid.

No doubt Sophie will have closing the airport foremost in her agenda.It seems we have a climate emergency and flying anywhere contributes to this.

Well, well, well. I love how Sophie Handford has been devoted most of this article. As only a single person in Council, I wouldn’t be surprised if she finds it hard to push through her agenda. Time will tell if Council is a young person’s world too.

Kāpiti and Coast Independent

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