Who am I?

I am a local farmer and businessman, I was Santa’s pilot for many years delivering Santa to both Parua Bay School and the kindergarten. I was instrumental in keeping the calf club alive at Parua Bay School and in getting the community fireworks party’s under-way. I almost got the Parua Bay community garden up and running but unfortunately ran into bureaucrats.

I am a family man with 7 children and as most of you know, I have raised them in amongst some difficult times and challenging situations, they all remain here with me in Whangarei either working or at school. My time is now spent between our farms and Pataua.

I have an extensive business background in farming and forestry, construction and development. I have worked with Iwi and I have a good relationship with our local Maori community especially those at Pataua South. I have a passion for people and their communities and have until now preferred to work quietly in the background, however I am concerned with the direction our city and region is taking so have decided to stand for council.

An independent candidate cannot offer or promise, let alone achieve, any of the above.

Independent candidates are unfortunately lone voices in council. That is a fact and we have seen that time and time again.

Our current system is akin to having a National party made up of representatives from all the other parties and then expecting decisions to be made. Simply it wouldn’t work.

We are all tired of the bureaucracy, the tedious procedures, the rising costs and the apparent total lack of common sense.

We are not tarred by any one's brush, we have no hidden agenda’s simply we wish to see our communities, our city and our region under prudent management that will enable it to grow and prosper in a sustainable way.

There are a few things that I am not particularly excited about:

• The outlay of $18M on the Whau Valley dam.
• The fluoridation of our water.
• The $10M spend on new council buildings.
• The spending of a further $2.4M on airport consultancy reports.
• The creation of another tier in council that requires more people and creates more bureaucracy.
• I am not supportive of the myriad of rules and regulations that are being forced upon us or the attempts being made to regulate how we manage our farms and property.
• I can’t agree with the building of a beach under the bridge, let alone swimming there.

We will have some lively discussions on the topics no doubt and I look forwards to sharing these with you.

We live in an awesome place, we are surrounded by awesome people and we have an awesome environment, wouldn't it be great to have an awesome District Council to go with that.