Final Campaign Post

There are just 24 hours left to cast your votes in the 2013 Auckland Council elections.

We are urging all local people to make the effort to vote. At this late stage you will need to take your completed voting papers to the Mt Roskill (or any other library) and deposit them in the ballot box before 12noon on Saturday.

The Roskill Community Voice team has thoroughly enjoyed the campaign. We've done everything that we can to engage the local community, focussing on important local issues and running an energetic campaign on the streets of Puketapapa/Mt Roskill.

Our campaign has been focussed on a number of key issues:

1) Winning a Fair Share for Mt Roskill
We say that it is simply unfair that our community receives just 74c of funding from Auckland Council for every $1 spent elsewhere. This legacy of neglect must be turned around and we are the team who will fight for a fair deal.

2) Bury the Pylons
The Pylons that march across our communities and harbour are a blight on our neighbourhoods and Harbour. They would not be accepted in the eastern suburbs and the Waitemata Harbour. We have a responsible plan to underground the pylons and our campaign is building momentum.

3) Looking after our environment and restoring our cones
We are the team who has put real energy into looking after our Foreshore, streams, and maunga over the past term. If re-elected we will have a strong focus on restoring Puketapapa/Mt Roskill and Big King/Te Tatua-a-Riukiuta.

4) Reducing harms in our community
The Roskill Community Voice team has consistently stood up to reduce harms in our community and we will push to reduce the harm caused by pokies and corner liquor stores in our community.

Further to this we are the only team to produce comprehensive policy so that voters have transparency ahead of the election. We've also run high energy local campaigns to engage with local people and involve community in local issues, including Bury the Pylons, A Vision for Three Kings, and Fairness for Wesley.

We have been able to achieve a lot with two RCV members on the Board over the past term and we know that a full RCV Board will have the skills and vision to provide Puketapapa/Mt Roskill with real leadership in the next term if voters give us that mandate.

Stand up for a Fair Share for Mt Roskill: Vote Roskill Community Voice for Puketapapa Local Board and City Vision for Ward Councillors.

RCV Policy on Reducing harms

Our families deserve an environment in which social harms are reduced. We have advocated fearlessly on behalf of our community and will continue to push for a safe and healthy community environment.

• We will launch a drive towards making Mt Roskill/Puketapapa Auckland’s first pokie-free community. 
• Building on the success of smokefree playgrounds we commit to delivering smokefree parks in Puketapapa/Mt Roskill over the next three year term.  
• We support a sinking-lid approach to the number of off-license liquor stores in our community and more effective controls to prevent abuse of the rules. 
• Work to build relationships with Pacific and Maori wardens to develop a presence in Roskill. 
• Tackling graffiti by ensuring that it is removed immediately, and prevented by the installation of high quality anti-graffiti murals. Work with local community on mural design.  
• Work to make Roskill a synthetic-cannabis free zone. 
• We know that poverty and inequality are the root cause of many issues in our community. We will work to ensure that all of our people receive a fair go through policies such as the Living Wage and provision of good quality affordable and social housing.

Supporting our campaign

There are now under three weeks until voting papers get issued for the 2013 Auckland Council

elections. Our team is campaigning hard and receiving a very positive response from the community.

We are campaigning for a fair share for Mt Roskill with a particular focus on:

• Winning a fair share of Council resources for Roskill. Our community currently receives 74c of investment for every $1 spent elsewhere. 
•  Burying the Pylons that blight our neighbourhoods and harbour.
•  Looking after our environment and restoring our neglected volcanic cones
•  Reducing social harms with a focus on reducing the number of pokies and halting the spread of bottle shops in our community.

To win a fair share for our community we need to encourage people to vote. You can help our campaign in one of the following ways:

• Donate. Campaigns cost a lot of money and every dollar you give helps us to get our message out.
• Deliver leaflets. Fun work and good exercise!
• Help to doorknock or phonebank. This is our most important campaign activity. Help out to make a big difference. We can provide training.
• Host a cottage meeting. Have friends or neighbours over to meet their local candidates.

Any help makes a big difference. To support our campaign please email on roskillcv@gmail.com or call on 09-620-9257.

Our submission on the Sky City deal legislation

Here is our submission to the Select Committee considering the legislation that will enable the Sky City convention centre-for-pokies deal to happen.  You can read the legislation itself, and make your own online submission, here.  The Greens also have a quick online form to make a submission that may be easier for those who want to show their opposition but don't have a lot of time.

Submission on the New Zealand International Convention Centre Bill

1.     Roskill Community Voice is a political organisation, established in 2010. which contests local body elections in the Puketapapa Local Board area, part of Auckland Council.  We are part of City Vision, and as such are endorsed by Labour, the Greens, and community independents.  We are currently represented on the Puketapapa Local Board by Julie Fairey and Michael Wood, and are running a full slate of six candidates for the 2013 elections, including Fairey, Wood and four others; Garth Houltham, David Holm, Harry Doig and Shail Kaushal.  While we are endorsed by both Labour and the Greens we set our policy independently and this submission has been primarily written by Julie Fairey, who is a community independent and not a member of any political party.  We have also had feedback from our community in the Puketapapa area and further afield in Auckland which has informed and aligned with the views expressed in this submission.

2.    Roskill Community Voice has taken a strong stance against the proliferation of pokies since our very beginning.  We have consistently advocated for measures that will reduce the number of pokies in our community and in Auckland; including a sinking lid without relocation for Puketapapa and the Auckland region.

3.    In 2012 Board member Fairey moved a Notice of Motion for the Puketapapa Local Board to oppose the Sky City Convention Centre deal on the basis that it would increase the number of pokies in Auckland.  This Notice of Motion was amended, and passed unanimously by the Board, including the following clause specifically on the deal itself:

“That the Puketapapa Local Board supports a new international convention centre for Auckland, but does not support any deal that  would result in an increase in gambling machines in Auckland,  including an increase in any venue, in accordance with our position on gambling machines in our 2011 Local Board Plan.”

4.     Roskill Community Voice does not support the international convention centre deal, even with the reduction in pokies that has now been agreed.  We consider the business case for the International Convention Centre weak and flawed, in particular the reliance on an increase in harmful pokies and electronic gambling tables, as well as an increase in casino space, to secure Sky City’s funding for the construction.  In a very short period of time the limited public benefit of not paying for the cost of construction will be overtaken by the very real public costs of gambling harm.  Any ongoing jobs created are likely to be much lower than the estimates given in the media, as shown by comparable developments in Australia.

5.  We specifically object to the 35 year licence guarantee, which inhibits future governments and council from measures to limit the harm from the casino, by requiring multi million dollar compensations to Sky City.  This is not only a bad way to make law it also undermines the sovereignty of future Parliaments.

6.  We further object to the expansion of gambling for a business which returns a far smaller share of its revenue to community projects than other outlets whose facilities are being (properly) reduced.  Casinos pay a very small portion back to the community and make very large profits, as well as causing significant harm to individuals, families, businesses and communities.   

7.    We also hold very real concerns about the process by which this legislation has come about.  The tender process was not sufficiently transparent, with Sky City appearing to be favoured early in the process.  In addition subsequent negotiations between the Government and Sky City do not seem to have delivered a very good deal for the Government party, perhaps in part because key Ministers and the Prime Minister were vociferous in their support for such a deal to the point where it became politically necessary to them for a deal to be concluded with Sky City, to the detriment of their bargaining position.

8.    Roskill Community Voice feel strongly that this is a deal that is being imposed on Auckland by Parliament, which is clearly not wanted by Aucklanders and is the equivalent of a whole new casino in our city.  It is in direct contradiction of the wishes of many communities, Local Boards and the Governing Body of Auckland Council.  We submit that the legislation should not proceed.

9.      We would like to appear to speak to our submission and request that the Committee travel to Auckland to hear submissions.