Ryan Bridge: Why are our councils discussing the war in Gaza?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

What are councils, local councils, regional councils?

It should be a simple question.

What is their purpose? I've always believed it's to take away my rubbish, put the street lights on. When I go to the toilet, you can take that away too. That's part of your job.

Roads, rubbish, sewerage, swimming pools, maybe a library. Although we've got the internet now, so why do we need libraries? But that's a debate for another day.

A big scrap in Rotorua, I was reading this over the weekend, over Gaza.

Notices of motion, petitions, meetings, interrupted, staff involved. And I asked myself, what has Rotorua Lakes Council got to do with Gaza?

They're calling for a ceasefire, and they're one of dozens of councils across the country who are doing this.

A clip from mayor Tanya Tapsell's interaction with Councillor Maxwell, who was trying to get this over the line, has gone viral.

"Councillor Maxwell, I rule that that is not an urgent item."

Probably the first time anything from a council has gone viral.

Don't get me wrong. Deaths and the extent of the retaliation by Israel completely out of whack, heart-breaking unimaginable suffering.

I am not casting judgment here on the issue at hand, I'm simply asking is Netanyahu, is Biden listening to the thoughts of Rotorua Lakes Council? And if not, should they be talking about things like this?

If councils were on top of the core business, this wouldn't matter to me. But you've got budget blowouts on a sewage scheme in Rotorua.

You've got in Buller 31% rate increases, in Hamilton 19% rate increases. You've got an average of 15% rate increases across the country. Infrastructure problems, sewage running into the ocean and Tauranga. They've just held an election, the first time they could vote in five years and they were in the 30s in turnout.

And you wonder why, people obviously don't have a lot of faith in their councils and what are they doing?

And it's not just Gaza, there are other issues that councils often jump on like things to do with the UN.

Is that your purview?

We've got a permanent representative on the UN Security Council, a permanent representative who can make statements on our behalf on behalf of the government.

Isn't that where you do it?

Are they focusing on local issues, shouldn't they only focus on local issues after all, aren't they local councils?

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