Organised by Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc

“Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues of the Western Bay region. We believe that this is important as income/wealth inequality, poverty , homelessness, affordable housing, and transport issues are serious problems in the Western Bay of Plenty. So it is vital to have local representatives who are sympathetic to these issues. The issues survey include attitudes to the “living wage”, provision of housing, free bus transport, incomes of staff at the local authorities, and attitudes to the “wellness” approach of central government.

“Closing the Gap” Tauranga is part of the national organisation “Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc” whose aim is to reduce income/ wealth inequality in New Zealand to a more reasonable level because of the significant social costs of high inequality which exists in New Zealand right now.

A summary of the results will be published in the Tauranga Sun newspaper on Friday 20th September and the full results for each candidate who responded are available at https://www.sunlive.co.nz, https://bayonline.co.nz/closing-the-gap-2019-survey-summary-of-responses/, the Bay Waka special election edition, the Closing the Gap website www.closingthegap.org.mz

. Accessing any of these sites makes it possible to see how individual candidates have responded to the survey. In the survey we have included a space for comment and many have taken the opportunity to explain their positions which is certainly a plus for democracy. It is sad though that a number of candidates have chosen not to respond to the survey and these are listed at the end of each of the local authority’s schedule of the candidates responses. You have got to wonder why they were not prepared to tell us what they thought about these issues.

We hope we have made a contribution to the process of these elections. Enjoy finding out more about our prospective councillors.

Peter Malcolm for Closing the Gap Tauranga

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1909/BoP_Regional_Council__Responses_to_Survey.docx

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1909/Western_BoP_District_Couincil_Responses_to_Survey.docx

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1909/Tauranga_City_Council_Responses__BW.docx

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1909/Summary_of_Responseslatest.docx

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