Kia ora! Ko Zac Painting toku ingoa, I’m Ngāpuhi and Fijian and I am from the Bay of Islands. I was born in Kawakawa and spent my later schooling years down the road in Kerikeri.
After leaving university I became a high school teacher and taught in Onehunga and Manurewa before moving to Wellington and teaching here in Porirua. I’ve also tried my hand as a policy analyst working on resource management reform for a couple of years before returning to teaching.
I love nature and spend a lot of my free time photographing our native wildlife. This appreciation and concern for our natural world is a big reason why I am proudly running as a Green Party candidate in this election.
I have long been concerned that governments have not taken climate change seriously, and my career decisions have been driven by concern for the future. I went into teaching to make sure our young people are prepared for their future. I went into policy to do my part in shaping the future of Aotearoa. Now I am standing for council to make sure this city has a brighter and greener future.
Being part of the Porirua Assembly tasked to come up with ideas to respond to climate change convinced me to stand. The Assembly came up with a wide range of fantastic recommendations about how this city can respond to climate change, and that experience showed me the passion and ideas our community has to contribute when they are enabled to do so. There is still so much work to be done to make those recommendations into reality, and as a councillor I will push to make them happen.
Climate action
We need to do more to respond to climate change. The risk of climate change is driving up home insurance prices and soon many coastal homes will become uninsurable. Worsening storms threaten to damage infrastructure and rebuilding will impose significant costs on councils, and therefore, ratepayers.
We need to be proactive, rather than reactive. That means understanding exactly how Porirua will be affected by climate change and investing in resilient infrastructure to mitigate and adapt to those impacts. We also have to do our part to change the way we do things, such as reducing our emissions through waste management changes and how we produce and consume things locally.
It is time for bold new ideas. The longer we delay action, the more expensive it will be to act in the future.
A greener Porirua
I want Porirua to literally become a greener city. I’d love to see planting programmes grown to stop sediment flowing into streams and restore the quality of our waterways. By planting more trees and supporting existing predator control programmes, we can restore habitats so our native birds and other species can thrive. I want us to clean our harbours and beaches so that people can swim and gather kaimoana safely.
Improving our democracy
I’ve heard from people in Porirua that they feel like their voices are not being heard. People are understandably concerned about rate increases and believe that they are not getting good value for their money. Like many councils around the country, we suffer from low voter turnout and discontent with our decision-makers, and this has troubling implications for the health of our democracy.
If we want to make things better we need to start making decisions differently. Citizen’s assemblies, like the Porirua Climate Assembly, show how people should be empowered to help shape the future of our city. I think we should build on this success and use citizen’s assemblies to decide what we do about other issues, like water or amalgamation. Reinstating our Youth Council to engage young people is also essential.
There are other initiatives, like participatory budgeting - where the public can come up with ideas and vote on how they think a portion of the budget should be spent - also need to be explored. This has been shown to improve civic engagement, something we sorely need. Democracy can be more than simply asking people to vote once every 3 years. It can be about truly sharing power with people.
The challenges ahead
Porirua has some big decisions to make. We are moving towards a new regional water entity with the other Wellington councils and it is critical that the new entity is accountable to the people of Porirua and doesn’t repeat the financial blunders Wellington Water did.
A question that will come out with voting papers this year is whether Porirua should investigate a merger with the other councils in the region to create a “supercity” like Auckland did in 2010. I’m not convinced this is in the best interest of Porirua but is too early in the process to make a judgement. If we do explore this path I believe the people of Porirua have to be the ones to drive the conversation, not the Council.
Voters will also have to answer a referendum question asking whether Porirua should retain its Māori ward. I would strongly encourage everybody to vote yes. While a Māori Ward is a far cry from true partnership as envisioned in Te Tiriti, the future of our country and city are stronger when we walk together in unity.
As Porirua navigates its future, a vote for me is a vote for someone who will be upfront and transparent about these challenges while looking out for the interests of Porirua, now and into the future.
For this campaign to be a success I’ll need to reach voters across the Onepoto Ward and get flyers into people’s letter boxes - and I’d love your help!
If you have the time, energy and willingness to see green change in our city, please click here to get in touch!
It costs money to hold events, print flyers and billboards and to get volunteers around the city. I know times are tough but if you have some change to spare even just a few dollars can help with this campaign.