Local Focus: Melanie Petrowski on Candidate Camera

Watch the full Local Focus interview for Melanie Petrowski's views on the region's biggest issues, and our less important quickfire questions

Hastings District Council candidate Melanie Lorraine Petrowski falsely believes there is a United Nations-driven conspiracy for a new world order that is infiltrating councils.

This conspiracy theory, has been around since the UN's inception in 1945, popularised by British writer and futurist H. G. Wells, but 80 years on there remains no evidence of it.

Yet Petrowski, who says issues around water are her biggest concern, believes Three Waters and He Puapua, the report into co-governance, is "potentially a stepping stone for the greater globalist arm to take over in the future".

She is also against the fluoridation of Hastings' drinking water.

"I just want to see clean, fresh water coming out of our taps. Unfortunately, I've had to spend over $2000 to get a filter for my house," she said.

Petrowski says she wants to bring "truth" to the council, despite having a social media presence that has been sharing and perpetuating regular falsehoods.

"I know that there is an agenda to infiltrate councils at a global level. The UN has brought out a roadmap to infiltrate local, they call it sub-national level, and people need to be aware of that and fight back."

Agenda 2030 is a set of Sustainable Development Goals devised in 2015 at the United Nations General Assembly. They are freely available on government websites and outline objectives like ending hunger, achieving gender equality, and combating climate change.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Agenda 2030 began to feature in misinformation campaigns disseminated to discredit vaccination, and even claim the virus didn't exist.

Petrowski says she suffered from "no jab, no job" mandates in Hawke's Bay.

A Hawke's Bay Today story at the time of her removal from her role as a security contractor with Rescom Health clarified that they had offered "other positions" that didn't require a vaccination within the company, but Petrowski was unhappy with the hours and pay offered.

Petrowski says she's not funded by Voices for Freedom or any other similar group.

"I am an independent candidate who listens to all voices, who are for freedom from mandates."

On more mundane matters, Petrowski says she'd like to beautify Hastings and build more transitional homes, perhaps using Hastings hospital.

"My grand idea would be to have a big, beautiful, brand new hospital between Hastings and Napier."