Analysis: Wānaka deserves more than the current old power base

Analysis.

The botched and amateur handling of local election debates by the Wānaka Chamber of Commerce is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the need for new blood in Queenstown’s twin town.

Queenstown and Wānaka are far from identical twins - fortunately!

Queenstown is hopefully about to turn a corner where the largely hidden forces of a multi-billion dollar tourist/property industry start to lose their grip on power. There’s nothing wrong with (sustainable) tourism or construction - it’s the “hidden” bit that needs changing.

Wānaka still has a bit of catching up to do though. These elections have exposed a deep rift between old and new Wānaka - not so much identified by large amounts of money but by a clash of old and new cultures.

At the risk of chucking a group of people into one bucket, there’s people like Barry Bruce and Lyal Cocks who certainly seem to identify with the “angry old world.” Conservative, trusting in legacy systems, not interested in fundamental change and certainly not fans of an open, transparent society. This is not about money but provincial New Zealand of the 1950’s - “she’ll be right as long as I’m in charge.”

Not a squeak of protest from this group around the now accepted non-democratic mess that the QLDC is in. Even the (young) Cody Tucker has shown some alarming signs of buying into this (old) mindset because “that’s the system and we can only work within the system.”

We need some younger (at least in attitude), fiery councillors in the QLDC council chambers. People not afraid to speak up, push back, challenge, question. That’s their job - that’s what they get paid for - that’s what the community wants.

Regardless of who becomes our next mayor - we want rebels and mavericks in there. Not people lacking the courage to do their job or people willing to join a bullying culture because that’s the majority position.

Mike Theelen will head off into the sunset with a fat bank balance and his blazer embroidered with his trusty team motto - “Trust and Thank the Staff.”

This is the same staff that have burned around $300 million of avoidable ratepayer dollars on vanity projects, putting semi-treated sewage into our rivers and shockingly mismanaged speculative property deals. The same staff that have pretty much outlawed democracy out of pure self-interest because they know the rules - because they wrote the rules and they enforce the rules.

In the eyes of the senior QLDC management team ratepayers, journalists and elected members have become the enemy. We can’t possibly understand how tough their jobs are, or how complex the local government system is, but they still head home at 5.00 pm, get paid generous salaries and face zero consequences for all their mistakes.

They need 18 people to “package” democracy and communications - effectively insulating them from any direct contact with us, the ratepayers who pay their salaries.

Hopefully a new team will be saying “Trust the Community. We are Now in Charge.”

It’s time for a big change. Wānaka can and should lead the way.