Firstly, I want to acknowledge the devastating events of Thursday 20 July and share deep condolences to family and friends of those who lost their lives, along with those injured, including our first responders who put themselves in harm’s way to save others.
It is clear the care, skill and professionalism of our Police and St John Ambulance services contained the situation and saved lives and for that they deserve our deepest gratitude.
A briefing with Police and the Prime Minister confirmed that this was a tragic, isolated incident connected to the workplace with no ongoing risk, but it has understandably rocked Tāmaki Makaurau.
It is in times like this that we must hold steadfast to resourcing evidence-based policy that will genuinely make our communities safer. Police made the point that this is why we are desperately overdue the gun register, which was recommended but then became politically too difficult after the 1990 Aramoana tragedy.
It wasn’t until the devastation of the 15 March 2019 terrorist attack in Christchurch, that the law finally passed and is still years from full implementation.
More information will come to light as investigations are closed and communicated. For all who have been impacted, I want to encourage you to please reach out for support at any time via call or text to 1737 for support from a trained counsellor.
Violence has no place in our city nor our country. We utterly reject it and will not allow it to define us.
To that effect, the work continues on everything that protects the environment we rely on, improves our city and those who live in it.
I write this editorial fresh from an announcement with Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Carmel Sepuloni, that after several years of campaigning, we’ve secured Government funding to save the St James Theatre. The Government’s $15m contribution matches and unlocks legacy Auckland Council funding, committed back under the first term of the SuperCity with the then Mayor Len Brown.
It took our sustained campaigning, thousands of you signing our open letter, working with two rather different terms of Auckland Council leadership and a number of engagements with Ministers behind the scenes to get us here.
We’ve confirmed that shovels will be breaking ground as early as the beginning of next year and the restoration will be complete before the theatre’s 100th birthday (this year marked 95), when tens of thousands of people are spilling out of the new City Rail Link station in the middle of our city’s arts and culture and learning districts.
It’ll breathe new life into mid-town, give the signal to go-ahead on surrounding projects and developments and ultimately demonstrates the value of people-power.
This is what it looks like to connect the dots between our community campaigning which strengthens the hand of a local MP to negotiate and find ever-more creative paths to make things happen behind the scenes. It’s exactly this win we bear in mind as the fight turns to restoring our local Leys Library.
And as we roll into August and just a handful of weeks before our next General Election, it’s wins and challenges like this that I expect to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
When nearly every New Zealander I speak to is incredibly exhausted by the status quo, the picture being painted by both of the two legacy FPP parties and their respective leaders seems increasingly bleak. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Thirty years ago, activists broke the monotonous duopoly with their successful fight for Mixed Member Proportional. Their fight gave all of us more options, breaking wide open the window of political possibility and it’s their shoulders I stood on in the decision to join the Greens, to fight for an equitable future for people and planet.
Meaningful progress so rarely comes from the top down, because there’s so little incentive to change the status quo when you’re profiting from it.
That’s why in this campaign we’ll continue to roll out the largest grassroots mobilisation Auckland Central has ever seen, to help connect up our community in a shared vision and to realise the power to achieve the change we collectively deserve.
Whether it’s supporting West End Rowing Club in their successful bid for accessible coastal rowing boats, helping coordinate a clean-up around Coxs Bay, ensuring Watercare and Auckland Council fix pipes and clear drains at the bottom of Howe Street or supporting Richmond Road School in the well-overdue classroom rebuild, I’m here to help make things happen.
As always, there’s more to discuss but I’m hitting my word limit! If you require support from my office, please do reach out. (Chlöe Swarbrick)
Chlöe Swarbrick, T: 09 378 4810, E: chloe.swarbrick@parliament.govt.nz www.greens.org.nz/chloe_swarbrick
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Published: 31 July 2023