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Ryan Bridge: Why are our councils discussing the war in Gaza? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What are councils, local councils, regional councils. It's a simple well,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: it should be a simple question. What is their purpose.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: I've always believed take away my rubbish, put the street
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: lights on, you know, when I go to the toilet.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: You can take that away too, that's part of your job. Roads, rubbish, sewerage,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: swimming pools. Maybe a library, although I think we've got
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the internet now, so why do we need libraries? But
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: that's a debate for another day. A big scrap in Rotru.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I was reading this over the weekend over Gaza. Yeah,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: notices of motion, petitions, meetings, interrupted, staff involved, and I
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: asked myself, what has Rotrua Lakes Council got to do
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: with Gaza. They're calling for a ceasefire and they're one
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of dozens of councils across the country who are doing this.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Listen to the Meyertania tapsles interaction with Councilor Maxwell, who
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: was trying to get this over the line. Could I
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: have then, no, that is Counselor Maxwell. Counselor Maxwell, I
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: caught Counselor Maxwell. I rule that that is not an
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: urgent item. This clip's apparently gone viral, probably the first
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: time anything from a council has gone viral. And don't
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: get me wrong, please, deaths and the extent of the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: retaliation by Israel completely out of whack, heartbreaking, unimaginable, suffering. Please,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I am not casting judgment here on the issue at hand.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I'm simply asking is Netan Yahoo, is Biden listening to
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the thoughts of Rotordo a lake's council and if not,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: should they be talking about things like this? So if
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: councils were on top of their core business, this wouldn't
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: matter to me. But you've got budget blowouts. This is
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: just it, or to do it, by the way, budget
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: blowouts on a sewerage scheme. You've got in Buller thirty
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: one percent rate increases. In Hamilton, you've got nineteen percent
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: rate increases. You've got an average of fifteen percent rate
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: increases across the country. You've got infrastructure problems, you've got
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: sewage running into the ocean and totong and they've just
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: held an election the first time they could vote, I
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: think in five years, and they were in the thirties
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and turnout and you wonder why, I mean, people obviously
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: don't have a lot of faith in their councils and
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: what are they doing? And it's not just Garza. There
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: are other issues that councils often jump on, like things
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: to do with the UN. And I mean, is that
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: your purview. We've got a representative, We've got a permanent
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: representative on the Security Council, the UN Security Council, a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: permanent representative who can make statements on our behalf, on
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: behalf of the government. Isn't that why you do it?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Are they focusing on local issues? Shouldn't they only focus
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: on local issues after all? Aren't they local councils. For
• 3:10
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• 3:13
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• 3:16
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