EXPOSED: Council mixes feedback from children and adults

The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act that submissions collected from schoolchildren were given to Selwyn District Councillors to guide their decisions, as part of Waikirikiri Ki Tua, the Future Selwyn Survey.

Officials have acknowledged that some responses from the children may have been included in the wider dataset, meaning Councillors did not know which information had been supplied by adults, and which had been supplied by children—some as young as seven years old.

Sam Warren, Taxpayers’ Union Local Government Campaigns Manager, said:

“Pretty childish stuff from Council, and Mayor Broughton is already in the naughty corner for his 14.9 percent rates increase last year—with more to follow. Maybe they all need to go back to school themselves.”

“I’m sure the colouring books were a fun exercise, but let's get real, Selwyn is in dire need of adults making the decisions, not children.”

“It’s completely irresponsible to include a seven year-old’s response alongside a local ratepayer on important Council decisions. Unless the kids wrote down their feedback with crayons, councillors won’t know the difference between a child’s input from an adult’s.”

“Either Council is deliberately screwing the scrum to push through policy—or they actually believe a Year 3 student could possibly have an informed opinion on things like infrastructure, housing, and services.”

“Selwyn Council needs to start taking advice from grownups, otherwise the district will keep feeling like a playground. Ratepayers won’t quickly forget this when local body elections come round.”