Palmy’s Ratepayer Pledge-signing councillors stand up for democracy

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is praising Palmerston North City councillors who signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge for successfully removing unelected representatives from two council committees and is urging the full council to finish the job at Wednesday’s vote.

Between the first draft and current proposed committee structure, unelected appointees have been removed from the Sports & Recreation and Community Resilience & Sustainability Committees.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator, Rhys Hurley, said:

“This is a huge win for local democracy and a credit to the councillors who stood by their Ratepayer Protection Pledge. Ratepayers expect decisions about spending and local policy to be made by the people they voted for, not unelected appointees.”

“Unelected representatives have no democratic accountability, yet were being given influence over key decisions involving millions of dollars of public money. That’s simply not right.”

“With the vote on Wednesday, councillors have the chance to finish the job and ensure full democratic accountability to all committees. Those other councillors who believe in transparency and democracy must back the move to remove unelected members entirely.”