Dave Mollard's Change is Constant: Let's put selfishness aside this election

This fence on the corner of Ruahine St and Tremaine Ave will likely soon be covered in local government election billboards. Photo / Judith Lacy

OPINION:

Soon every fence on every highly visible street corner in our city will be plastered with posters of candidates wanting to influence our vote based on the way their head and shoulders are photoshopped and the typeface they use.

Some have slogans such as "more than just talk" or "vision, heart, energy", others are hopeful that just enough name repetition is enough to get them into our subconscious, kind of like Coca-Cola and McDonald's do!

Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for anyone running for office. They must come with an extra layer of thick skin to deal with the negativity we ratepayers sling at their feet (and sometimes on their billboards).

One of the biggest problems established democracies face is they have failed to capture the imagination of young voters and ethnic minorities, so our election outcomes are skewed undemocratically towards the largest group that does vote, which statistics tell us is the pale, stale and whare-owning demographic of which I am a member.

Until recently I blamed these marginalised groups for not voting, but if you peel back a layer you get to understand there are systemic reasons groups of people don't turn up at the polling booth.

The reason I know elections are coming up was our household recently received a plethora of letters from the Electoral Commission. Mine was addressed to "Mr", my wife's was "Ms" and my oldest child was "Miss".

Apart from the absolute waste of resources it took to bundle these information sheets up and hand-deliver them to my door, the letter is a form of communication younger people hardly ever use, especially when addressed with out-of-date titles they never use. Come on Electoral Commission, you need to do better at attracting more voter turnout.

One of the inherent traits of humanity is we are selfish; the state of our environment and the Grand Canyon-size gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" is proof positive of this selfishness.

Perhaps it's time we stop voting for what we want and start voting for what our children and grandchildren need? Rather than minimising rate increases, we should be maximising our investment in the infrastructure our mokos will inherit 20 years from now. Let's ask the questions of our local politicians about what Palmy is going to look like in two decades' time and vote for the councillors with the best plan!

• Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.