This is not a hit piece: Pamela Taylor, the Dunedin mayoralty candidate
'I listen to the people’
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Have you watched Stuff’s Fire and Fury? It’s an eye-popping watch.
The documentary resulted in dozens of stories and social media posts.
It has led to people naming some of those standing in local body elections who were associated with Voices For Freedom (VFF).
VFF is an anti-vaccination and anti-mandate group that openly campaigned to get supporters into decision-making positions in councils.
Crucially those candidates were told to hide their affiliations.
I wasn’t sure I was going to do a story. I didn’t want to platform some candidates over others.
But here we go.
On Wednesday morning I found myself on the phone with Pamela Taylor, a candidate for not only the Dunedin City Council, but one of 11 candidates vying for the mayoralty.
Here’s a tweet addressing some of the concerns over Taylor:
Throughout this story, I’m sharing some recent Facebook posts from Taylor, largely made under her maiden name Pamela Pirie. And they are posted without comment.
Here is the first:
When I read that she didn’t respond to the ODT’s request for comment, I was expecting Taylor to be difficult to get hold of.
She wasn’t. I rang her, and she answered.
I asked her straight away about her connections with VFF.
“I am not associated with them, no.”
Asked if she was ever a member, she replied, “I haven’t been receiving messages from them at all”.
“I have never paid a membership or anything, I am aware of who they are.”
Taylor, who once had a petition to Parliament about ending vaccine mandates, stressed she was an independent candidate, with no ties to any other organisation.
That included the ACT Party, with Taylor photographed with leader David Seymour in this Stuff story in November 2020. A recent bio mentions she was a member of New Conservatives.
In December last year, Taylor moved from Invercargill with her three children to a city she last lived in as a student.
Fast-forward eight months and she is standing for the mayoralty, and council.
I asked Taylor why she was running in Dunedin.
“I would have preferred to run in multiple places this time around, because I own a house in Invercargill, Greymouth and one in Westport.”
Fact check: she does own properties in those places. And she can run in multiple places. Interestingly, the rules only prevent you from standing for a territorial and regional authority in the same area, ie Dunedin City Council and the Otago Regional Council.
But, Dunedin is “my home now, and I want to invest in the community”.
Taylor said over the last couple of years she had become increasingly interested in politics, both nationally and locally.
“Since Dunedin is my home and where I am raising my three gorgeous girls, I want to get involved in the community here.”
Asked about key issues facing the city, she replied:
Protecting South Dunedin from flooding
Environmental impact of erosion at St Clair and Middle Beach
Traffic in Mosgiel
Car parking in Dunedin’s central city
The landfill at Smooth Hill.
On that last issue, she suggested building waste destined for landfill could be used to heat Dunedin Hospital.
Taylor, on the topic of mandates, said she believed people “shouldn’t be discriminated against”.
In terms of council, I asked Taylor what were the issues that people were discriminated against.
She replied that she was “quite passionate about making sure there is good traffic flow through the city to make it easier to move backwards and forwards”.
I put it to her that traffic flow wasn’t really about discrimination, “but I’m talking about traffic now,” she said.
Asked about Māori representation on council, she replied: “I believe in democracy.”
“People, regardless of who their ancestors are, have equal right to participate in the community discussion, and I do not believe in autocratic government where it is all based on ancestries.”
“Who your ancestor is shouldn’t determine your status in society . . . We are all equal, we are all equal human beings, we all have an equal voice.”
The issue of mandates, and discriminating against people, was “linked to a lot of negative things in history”.
Asked for specific examples, she said “any place where people are being discriminated, degraded and dehumanised has been bad”.
“Discrimination and unequal treatment is undemocratic, and we don’t want that in New Zealand.”
Taylor was planning on attending candidate meetings organised by the Dunedin Ratepayers and Householders’ Association, of which she was a member.
She was working on her campaign, and was fully funding it herself but was not willing to disclose her budget.
But she was keen on discussing other ideas for council, including stopping Three Waters, more car parking, and lowering city debts.
I asked Taylor how she came up with those issues in such a short space of time, she was unequivocal: “I listen to the people.”
“I like to hear what they are saying about their city and what they are concerned about.”
Me too.
I note there appears to be some confusion over the voting system Dunedin uses, STV, particularly on not wanting someone to be elected.
Remember: under STV voters should vote for who they DO want, in order of preference. If you don’t want someone, don’t rank them.
So, I flew into a rage quite early for a Wednesday.
The reason?
This.
Some scumbag decided to dump their household waste in the city’s town belt. What was even more grating, was that most of the items were recyclable.
I had a quick look for any notable addresses in the hope of door-knocking the drop-kick. But nothing. I called the council instead, who were great to deal with.
Interesting development to see Les Mills moving to the Meridian Mall in March, part of the move was to access some of the 600+ carparks in the mall.
I can almost hear the ‘what about Kmart’ posts.
RIP to the wonderful author/illustrator Raymond Briggs. I thought this touch from the Dunedin Library was wonderful.
It made me grateful to have some of these books at our home growing up. And it is nice for my kids to still have access to those books, often inscribed by their late relatives.
Tweet of the Week is a classic of the genre from Talia Marshall:
This is her reply:
Then this:
And here is the moment we knew the Otago Nuggets had won. Scenes.
Have a great week. As always, message me any story tips at Hamish.McNeilly@stuff.co.nz.
Pity Pirie. What a nutjob.
My candidate webpage. Happy to be interviewed on any topic.
https://www.SeagerForMayor.nz