Context
Crux surveyed all the candidates before the election to determine their positions on five key issues. These were: climate change, infrastructure versus arts & culture expenditure, affordable housing, co-governance and control of the Lakeview development.
Across four issues, the elected councillors’ views varied broadly. But on one, they were profoundly united. All councillors agree “there is a climate emergency and we need to act decisively.”
QLDC full council meeting
November 17, 2022
Kia ora. Ko John Hilhorst ahau. I am representing FlightPlan2050.
Council is united on Climate Change
All elected councillors agree that “there is a climate emergency, and we need to act decisively.”
- A majority recorded the strongest possible agreement with the statement.
- With only one exception, in each ward, the voters elected those candidates who most strongly agreed with this statement. (Peter Newport’s response was one point stronger than Matt Wong’s in the Whakatipu-Queenstown ward.)
- Climate change was the only surveyed issue on which all elected councillors agreed.
- On all other questions, responses were spread widely, with several holding opposing views. In two cases, the responses ranged from strongly agree all the way to strongly disagree.
- A majority recorded the strongest possible agreement with the statement.
In addition, Mayor Lewers presented the most committed climate change platform among the mayoral candidates.
A powerful mandate
You inherit a climate emergency declaration from a council two terms ago. Yet the most recent Council struggled to include a few hundred thousand dollars to fund climate change initiatives in this year’s annual plan. Its draft documents singled these out as the discretionary straw that would break its quarter-billion-dollar budget.
The world is facing a climate crisis. Our district is at high risk because of its economic reliance on high-emissions long-haul flights. You are united in your concern for climate change. Your community has given a strong mandate. It wants your leadership on climate change action.