This week voting packs are being delivered in your letterbox to cast your vote for the Waikato Regional Council (WRC) alongside Hamilton council elections.
This election is providing you the opportunity to decide and elect people who will represent you and take decisions on your behalf and for your benefit.
Unfortunately, council elections – including campaigning, are more in limelight and regional councils relegated to backstage. There are few opportunities available for voters to attend events to meet the regional council candidates also.
Most people in community are perhaps not fully aware of the significance and role of, for instance, the Waikato Regional Council. As a result, interest of voters and voting turnover is generally also low. There are four seats from Hamilton for Waikato Regional Council and this election, there are 10 candidates.
Waikato residents, including those in Hamilton, live in diverse and resource rich region that has immense opportunities. These opportunities, if exploited to its full potential, will help local communities to thrive. And, this is where the Waikato Regional Council helps to “create a sustainable future for people today and generations to come.”
Waikato is the fourth largest region in New Zealand, covering 25,000 square kilometres. It stretches from the Bombay Hills and Port Waikato in the north down to the Kaimai Ranges and Mt Ruapehu in the south, and from Mokau on the west coast across to the Coromandel Peninsula in the east. The region has 1,138 km of coastline.
The region is broken up into one city (Hamilton) and 10 districts, three of which lie across the regional boundary.
Regional councils have different responsibilities to district and city councils which govern smaller geographic areas. Regional councils develop policies and plans to manage natural and physical resources within their regions. The issues and solutions are complex, but interconnected.
WRC has overarching regional responsibilities and also provides regional leadership in activities and functions such as “improving water quality, planning for climate change and the transition to a low emissions economy, enhancing the health of our coastal and marine ecosystems, protecting and restoring our unique native plants and animals and the ecosystems they live in, keeping people safe on our roads and waterways as well as from floods and other hazards, and providing passenger transport services” (source: WRC).
Waikato Regional Council does all this and more. It plays a regulatory role and is responsible for “the use of the region’s natural resources, such as water, soil, air, geothermal areas and the coastal marine area…(and) seek ways to sustainably manage the adverse effects of resource use, to people, property and the environment.” Additionally, prevents, reduce or eliminate adverse effects from invasive pests and diseases that can significantly damage our environment, economy and native species.
This is all done in “collaboration with communities, landowners, iwi and other agencies.”
As a rate-payer resident, it is important to participate whole-heartedly in the electoral process of regional councils alongside local councils, as your decision taken today will affect us all tomorrow.
Also Read: https://www.newsviews.co.nz/environmental-specialist-bala-tikkisetty-in-wrc-poll-fray-to-drive-change/ https://www.newsviews.co.nz/32-file-nominations-for-waikato-regional-council-one-elected-unopposed/
I’ve never actually given any thought earlier & just ticked on any name that came up on ballot paper. Not this time, though!
Thank you for reminding voters of the different responsibilities of the Waikato Regional Council.
Take note, election candidate Sarah Thomson intends to absorb Hamilton’s bus network into HCC, were she to be voted in as mayor.