WRC should balance our long term wellbeing, says Nickel
Brief profile: Jennifer Nickel, a candidate for WRC, is a sustainability professional & an experienced Environmental Manager in the dairy industry. She brings with her a ‘wealth of knowledge’ by way of her high academic qualifications in Molecular Biology & Sustainability topped with relevant experience. When it comes to environment, she is concerned at ‘children being left with more problems’. Her vision is of a council that ‘delivers’ & ‘balances long term wellbeing’, & councillors who ‘govern for our collective wellbeing’ rather than having ‘short-term interests’. If elected, Nickel assures to bring ‘much-needed diversity to the table, with the aim of engaging the public more through online engagement.’ (NewsViews)
By Jennifer Nickel:
The hard reality is that, when it comes to the environment, we are currently leaving our children with more problems, and less options, than we had. I am standing for Waikato Regional Council to help change that.
As a child of the 80’s and 90’s I heard about some species going extinct soon, some forests disappearing and a bit of rubbish on the side of the road. That was bliss compared to the facts children grow up learning about today.
Many of us are incredibly busy in our lives, but what is it all for? Wellbeing, right? That’s the vision. That’s what you go to work for. Well, that’s what Councils are meant to deliver for us too.
As a sustainability professional I often explain that the wellbeing of our economy – which we all focus on – is dependent on the stability of our society, which in turn is dependent on the health of our environment and its ability to provide us with its raw materials and other useful benefits.
Local government decision making is meant to balance these three things in a culturally appropriate way. It’s obvious from various sources of data that this balancing hasn’t been done equally – globally. However, to rectify it we need to start locally. The time has come to put the environment first a bit more often in order to balance for our long-term wellbeing. It’s a different way of doing things but if designed correctly would be helpful in many more ways than one.
Let’s elect people into decision making positions who will govern for our collective wellbeing rather than only look out for the short-term interests of the loudest voices. Let’s elect people who put so much value on us that they can make an unpopular decision and will take the time to convince us why.
I expect good communication in various engaging ways to inform and motivate constituents to participate in the local government discussions on how to spend our money. All of our Councils will face a number of key issues in their next term. If I am elected to Waikato Regional Council I intend to make current discussion topics easily accessible via blog and social media in the aim of enticing more people to get involved and have a say in the future of their region.
I very much hope that by 2030 we can collectively see a horizon of more options than problems when it comes to that which sustains us.
Jennifer Nickel, Waikato Regional Council Candidate from Hamilton
www.jennifernickel.com , https://www.facebook.com/jen4wrc/
Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this column, ViewPoint are the personal opinions of the writer, and do not reflect the views of NewsViews nor does it ascribe to these in any manner.
– from NewsViews
