Local Government New Zealand extracts 4 million rates-paid dollars from our Councils every year for supposed representation to Government, but instead is an apologist for Government ideology, dismissing 3 Waters push-back and Communities 4 Local Democracy, and publishing the following Campaign Advice to Candidates:

> https://www.lgnz.co.nz/…/Inclusive-Campaigning-resource…

My concerns to the ODT were as follows:

I consider this latest Inclusive Campaigning advice from LGNZ to be a patronising, bicultural straight-jacket, claiming diversity but pushing only Maori speech and sensitivity agendas at the expense of plain widely-understood speech.

The LGNZ ‘campaign advice’ mostly just repeats the trigger words: racist, discrimination, diversity, and inclusion, but there is no mention of words like: leadership, costs, consultation, value for money, debt, and rates, which are of interest to voters and should be the real focus of Elected Representatives charged with spending public millions.

Cr. Lee Vandervis.

The obvious solution is to save ratepayers a fortune and stop Council funding of Local Government New Zealand.