Ray Chung is running for council as an independent candidate from the Onslow-Western ward in Wellington for the upcoming local body election in October. He was born in Wellington, while his father came from China. He represents the voice of the migrant community. Chung spoke to Indian Weekender on what ails the Wellington City Council. Extracts:
Q. You say your business brain is what you will bring to the role of Mayor / Councillor. Surely there are others with similar acumen already on the Council. How will you be any different?
A. No, in fact, there are not! Most of the councillors are not from business backgrounds but from the unions, government departments and even students. I've managed multi-million dollar projects globally and will ensure best business practices to justify any project or expenditure of ratepayer’s money.
Q. Wasteful spending by Council appears to be the main theme of your campaign. Do you have any specific solutions to specific wasteful spending by the Council?
A. There are so many and I'm being regularly told of these. An example is of the Civic Office and Municipal Office Buildings in Civic Square, both of these buildings were fitted out with new furniture and furnishings costing over $1 million only four months before moving to their new premises on The Terrace. Instead of moving this four-month old furniture to their new premises, the council "disposed of it" and bought brand new furniture for their Terrace offices at the cost of over another $1 million. Another is the $3 million that the council undercharged businesses for their water usage. Instead of re-billing the correct amount, the WCC CFO stated, “This was unfortunate but don’t worry, we’ll just borrow an additional $3 million to make up this shortfall!” The roundabout in Waitoa Road in Hataitai cost $570,000 but only lasted two days when buses drove over it breaking the ceramic tiles. Another further example of this wastage is the council spending $77,000 taking a case to the Environment Court to stop a building owner from taking down his dilapidated veranda!
Q. The new Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) survey points to the prevalence of racism in local government. Does this deter you and what would be your strategy to combat racism, if elected?
A. Yes, I read about this survey and in all my meetings with council staff, no one has brought this up. I was born in Wellington but my father came from China, so this is something that I would address immediately. It does not deter me and I would ensure that all races are treated equally and all of them given equal opportunity to succeed. There is no place in local government for racism or race-based laws or policies affording special treatment to any select group.
Q. You refer to unfilled potholes and faulty sewage, which would indicate fundamental and systemic failure by council. What lies behind this inertia?
A. Repairing sewage and water pipes are not a priority for the current council! They want to be remembered for their vanity projects. Individual councillors have their own ideology and political party affiliations that push them towards their own projects that only benefit a small section of the community. I believe the prime objective of any council is to maintain the infrastructure, both above and below ground and part of the problem is also the way council officers have allowed developers to build projects without satisfactory and effective infrastructure. It's reprehensible that in Karori, which is reputedly the largest suburb in New Zealand, there are holding tanks for water and sewage. The proposed plans for the Ryman Retirement Village should not use water holding tanks but the infrastructure pipes should be upgraded by Ryman to cope with the increase in population resulting from this huge development.
Q. As a migrant, will your voice be heard on the Council?
A. That is my intention and objective. For example: Urmila Bhana from the Grocers in Newtown wasn't genuinely "consulted" on the cycle lanes past her family's store that necessitated the removal of their car parks causing a major detrimental impact to their business. There are also other businesses that resorted to legal action to get the council to cease this and the court's judgement vindicated them. But this expensive legal action wouldn’t have been necessary, both for those businesses and ratepayers, if the council had engaged in genuine consultation. A group of Thorndon businesses have lodged a judicial review against the council for the same arrogant attitude from the council in removing car parks from Thorndon Quay, resulting in a 40% reduction in business for some companies.
Q. How have you been engaging with residents in your community on issues affecting them?
A. Five years ago, together with three other residents in our area, I established the Onslow Resident Community Association (ORCA) encompassing the suburbs of Broadmeadows, Khandallah and Kaiwharawhara. We coordinate with other Residents and Community Associations directly and through WRAN, the Wellington Residents Association Network.
Q. How is this current council performing?
A. You don’t need to even follow the daily stories about how inept our council is, just look at the latest WCC survey poll results: only 12% of Wellingtonians consider the council has performed well and listen to ratepayers, this is down from 30% last year and is the lowest satisfaction rate in New Zealand!
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