Revell gets back into local politics

By ANNE BESTON

A former MP who resigned as Parliament's Deputy Speaker over bullying allegations involving parking tickets is standing for Auckland's environmental watchdog.

Ian Revell is a candidate for the Auckland Regional Council at the local body elections in October.

Other high-profile council hopefuls include women's health campaigner Sandra Coney, Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett, former NZ First MP Gilbert Myles and long-time Labour Party activist Jill Amos.

Mr Revell was the National MP for Northcote when allegations that he threatened to get rid of a police chief after being issued with two parking tickets cost him his high-ranking job in the House in 1999.

The scandal was embarrassing for the then National Government, which was already embroiled in a row over the Tourism Board.

After being issued with the tickets, for parking illegally outside a North Shore primary school, Mr Revell wrote to the then Shore police chief, Lindsay Todd, on the Deputy Speaker's letterhead saying that he would not support Mr Todd's reappointment as district commander.

Months later, Mr Revell lost his seat by 278 votes to Labour's Ann Hartley.

At the weekend, Mr Revell said he had made a "silly statement in the heat of the moment" and had paid the price.

He said last week's resignation of a Human Rights Commissioner, Ella Henry, put his parking ticket "into perspective".

Ms Henry allegedly tried to use her position to bully a police officer who issued her partner with a ticket for running a traffic light at a pedestrian crossing in West Auckland.

"I think most people look back on it [the Revell case] with amusement. Whenever I run into people who haven't seen or heard of me for a while they laugh. They think it's funny.

"But it was an error of judgment and I think I paid the honest consequences. I resigned immediately."

Mr Revell, an MP for nine years, said the past did not prevent his making a contribution and if elected he would push for a second harbour crossing. He also wants one super council to run the Auckland region.

"Central Government can play off the five main cities and boroughs against each other. We should have one leader speaking for Auckland, strengthen community board structures and remove local councils."

Mr Revell has been selling real estate since his parliamentary days.

Ms Coney is probably best known as co-author of a story in Metro magazine about experiments on patients with a pre-cancerous cervical condition at National Women's Hospital during the 1960s.

The revelations led to a Government inquiry which in 1988 adopted the recommendations put forward by inquiry head Dame Silvia Cartwright, now the Governor-General.

Ms Coney helped to found the early feminist magazine Broadsheet and Women's Health Action, of which she is a director.



Mr Barnett, who will continue his Chamber of Commerce job if elected, said he was standing for the ARC to get faster action on Auckland's transport woes. "It's one of [the council's] big areas of activity and this is an opportunity to look at the speed with which things are being done."

He said Auckland's seven councils had to look at pooling services such as water and resource management, instead of duplicating them seven times over.

Mr Myles is a former National MP who helped to found NZ First.

Mrs Amos, a former ARC and Manukau City councillor, has a teaching background and was a UN observer at the South African elections in 1994.

Three fresh faces around the ARC table are guaranteed as long-serving councillors Les Paterson, Lady Patricia Thorp and Maureen Brooker are not standing.

A total of 49 candidates are contesting 13 seats in the six constituencies of the ARC.

Voting by postal vote starts on September 21. Results will be announced on election day, October 13.

Feature: Local body elections 2001