Elderly widow has warning for minister

By NATASHA HARRIS

An elderly North Shore woman at the centre of Judith Tizard's grilling in Parliament over the Auckland Regional Council's rates rises has some political advice for the Auckland Issues Minister.

Janie Farquharson told the Herald: "If she wants to stay in Parliament, she better do a lot of thinking ... because, believe me, she won't have a seat there next time.

"I much prefer her mother."

The 88-year-old Takapuna resident's comments came as Ms Tizard, daughter of former Governor-General Dame Cath Tizard, continued to be bombarded in Parliament about the effect of the ARC's rise on superannuitants and its effectiveness in improving public transport.

Ms Tizard said that while she felt sorry for Mrs Farquharson, there was nothing the Government or Parliament could do.

She said that "Mrs Farquharson and others like her have many more choices than some other people who live in Auckland north".

Ms Tizard was later heckled about whether ratepayers such as Mrs Farquharson were being forced to take on the cost of a "debilitated" rail system.

"If we want a better one, then we will have to pay for it," she said.

Mrs Farquharson has an $8500 combined rates bill. Since being contacted by Act MP Deborah Coddington, she has been used in Parliament as an example of how the rates rise is hurting superannuitants.

For 64 years, Mrs Farquharson has owned and lived in her Takapuna beachfront house. She and her husband bought the house in 1939 for £605.

Now, with multimillion-dollar houses all around, her property is worth around $2.7 million.

Every year the rates bills have crept up, angering the widow who looks after her blind 63-year-old son, Max.

"When you buy a home anywhere, you don't imagine that people are going to charge such exorbitant rates" Mrs Farquharson said. "When I first bought this place, it was just a paddock with a house."

"Fancy living to be this old and be talked about in Parliament ... But I'm so tired now.

"I don't like the public life, I enjoy the private life."

An ARC spokesman said that by 5pm on Tuesday, 75 per cent of ratepayers in North Shore and Rodney - the first areas to be sent bills - had paid. He was unable to say how many had been paid in full and how many had taken the 10 per cent monthly instalments options.

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