Political campaigns

should not be conducted by local councils in this country. It may well be that elsewhere it is acceptable. Councils elsewhere have other functions and politics do come into that.

Here councils are there to deal with things like roads, rates, rubbish, community facilities and the like. They are not there to donate ratepayer funds to one side of a political campaign and not the other. They are not there to support one side of a referendum and not the other.

Our local council has gone too far, much too far. They have donated $50,000 of ratepayer funds to "Yes" for the upcoming referendum. They have donated nothing to "No". They should not have donated money to either side. What is more this has been done without the approval of - or even consultation with - ratepayers. $50,000 would do a great deal more good elsewhere in our area.

No, I am not happy with what they have done and many other people feel the same way. It has even got a negative mention in this morning's editorial. 

The council has added to the problem by allowing a "Reconciliation" group to station themselves at the entrance to the library. They are campaigning for "Yes" of course. It is a highly political group which has been able to get a number of items through council - name changes and a refusal to make an environmentally sound change that might have "disturbed" something we have been told is "significant".

I was at the library yesterday and saw this for myself. Indeed I was not able to go into the library without being stopped by these people. Even when I made it clear, quite politely, I did not want to speak to them they persisted. 

I spent a little time observing them. Did they do the same to other people? Yes, they did. 

As I left the library they tried again. Outside someone I know by sight said, "I don't like that."

No. I don't like it either. I know that a "No" group has been denied the same right to put their case.

There are two, perhaps more, sides to this referendum. At one time the government did not even want to send out a "yes/no" case, just a yes case. It is only funding, albeit indirectly, the Yes case. There are serious flaws in the Yes case, flaws which could lead to unexpected places.  The No case is leading to other problems but would at least maintain the status quo for now and may even lead to changes in the future.

Whatever happens I believe the council should be neutral. It should not be spending funds on anything like this, particularly without ratepayer approval. It should not be approving one side of such a serious issue and not permitting the other to be heard.

And all readers should be able to enter the library without being harassed by a group which is feeding division in the community.