Alexander (Sandy) Milne

Our choice of a regional councillor affects all ratepayers in Whakatāne. We need a competent person to represent us.

Voting closes in nine days. I urge everyone to vote now, but to choose carefully.

I have had a cascade of emails and phone calls since August 26 when Toi Iti ran his first full-page Beacon advertorial, which, in the opinion of all of my friends, was designed to look like a bona fide Beacon story. It fooled none in my circle of friends.

Furthermore, all of them assumed, as I did, that all 12 district councillors chipped in to pay for the adverts.

Not so. The Iti campaign paid for that, and a dozen elected community leaders unwisely went along with this charade.

I was pleased to see that wiser Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki district councillors did not sign this orchestrated “endorsement”, along with all eight councillors in Kawerau, with every mayor staying head down, below the parapets.

Some friends have warned me that I am taking a risk criticising Iti’s strategy.

They warn me that I could be perceived as racist.

In anticipation, I am poised to release letters to me from two of New Zealand’s most exalted Māori leaders plus others in my own defence.

I ask Beacon readers and, in fact, all voters in district council, regional council or parliamentary elections to do your own thinking before you vote.

As a scientist and community watchdog for several decades, I ask you all to beware of councillors who let us down badly in the past, and candidates who invoke their names in support of their own attempts to get elected.

I also challenge any of the councillors and others who are busy criticising candidate Victor Luca, our former mayor, for not being able to work with others, to name a day when they would meet him in a public meeting.

In my experience Dr Luca is one of the most articulate communicators I have ever met in my lifetime in New Zealand and as a World Health Organisation adviser.