HAMILTON LEADERSHIP CRISIS - Do you believe in Fairy Tales?

Rudi from Hamilton Lake

Hamilton Leadership Crisis – Do You Believe in Fairy Tales?
In times of crisis we need leadership. What type of leadership are we going to see from the Hamilton City Council, Senior Management, and the Councillors. We all read the fairy tales where the wicked rulers sit in their ivory towers counting their gold pilfered from the taxes that they have imposed while telling the Peasants ‘to eat cake’… They may throw the odd penny out their gilded carriage windows to the beggars on the streets, but those pennies come from the public purse not their own.
In other Kingdoms we read of kind and caring rulers, who whilst they have not amassed such treasures themselves, have built strong public coffers to use in times of crisis, and also freely give from the lands and resources they own - for the love of their community.

The Hamilton Residents and Ratepayers Association applaud the actions of government with ministers taking a 20% pay cut, it is a good start (1The Guardian 15th Apr 2020). New Zealand’s public officials are some of the highest paid in the world, despite the fact that we are a small country with a very low medium wage (2Stuff, 18th Aug 2020).

In Hamilton the median income is just 30,200 (3Quick Stats Hamilton, NZ Statistics 2018 census), while the Hamilton City Council CEO ‘earns’ almost 470,000, (4Stuff 22nd Aug 2020; 5Stuff 22nd Feb 2020) around 15 times that median income. This is almost as much as our Prime Minister. A Prime Minister who in turn, for some reason, has a higher base salary than the Prime Minister of Canada, a country over 7 times the size of NZ and over 220 times the size of Hamilton. Our city Councillors have also had a salary increase, and been granted Committee Chairmanship adding an additional $10,000 to their salary (6Stuff, 15th Nov 2020), which for some is not their only source of income.

Not too long ago in NZ, government ministers earned a similar wage to teachers (7Otago Daily Times 6th Nov 2013), and a teacher could buy a home and raise a family on a single income. It is easier to make policies that reflect the needs of the people if you financially understand and share in their plight. While it is great to read the news that the Hamilton CEO has changed his mind and is following other city council CEO’s and increasing his donation (for use on his own staff) to 20% of his salary (8Stuff 15th Apr 2020), the Hamilton Residents and Ratepayers Association is looking forward to further pay cuts from all our senior city leaders. We are also keen to see other belt tightening measures. Measures that reflect their affinity and understanding of the pain that the covid-19 virus is causing to our people and the massive burden it will put households, residents and ratepayers who have lost their jobs, or worse gotten sick.

We cannot spend from our city coffers, as those already are filled with paper attesting to our massive city debt. If we are to spend our way out of this recession, we must be sure to spend our pennies wisely, and only on those who need it. It must be from spending that does not put further debt on future generations, or take from residents and renters to merely put more gold coin in the hands of the wealthy few. We need leadership. Will it come? Do you believe in Fairy-tales? Let us see…

Ends

President: Ray Mudford – 021 987 606

1www.theguardian.com...

2www.stuff.co.nz...

3www.stats.govt.nz...

4www.stuff.co.nz...

5www.stuff.co.nz...

6www.stuff.co.nz...

7www.odt.co.nz...

8www.stuff.co.nz...