Canty Labour Party appoints secretary

Press, 28 May 1984, Page 8

Canty Labour Party appoints secretary

A Christchurch City Councillor, Mrs Kathie Lowe, has been appointed the Canterbury regional secretary of the Labour Party. Mrs Lowe, who gained the position at the week-end, succeeds Mr Ron Simpson, who resigned in April. She said yesterday that a desire to help other people led her into local body politics. She joined the Labour Party in the early 1970 s because she saw it as an organisation able to “do something for the less fortunate.” The Christchurch Kindergarten Council was one of the first organisations through which she could work for the community. She worked with the group for eight years. “I became involved with them because I saw we needed kindergartens out in Parklands,” said Mrs Lowe. Once that goal had been achieved, it was time to move on to something else. She became a local electorate committee member

and in 1980 put her name forward as a candidate in the local body elections. Mrs Lowe gained seats on the City Council and Canterbury Hospital Board during the elections. The rubbish issue was one of her main concerns, and in particular the proposed Waimairi land fill. “There is more we can do with our rubbish than stick it in a hole in the ground,” she said. In her first term on the council she helped set up a committee to conduct a feasibility study on a biogas plant. The project advanced to a

stage where a pilot plant could have been built but a swing to Citizens in the 1983 elections saw the idea dropped by the new council. Mrs Lowe sees her new position as another chance to help people. She wants to make the regional office a place where people would want to go. “There is a lot of information (on the Labour Party) that should be there but is not there,” she said. She also hopes to be able to get the different electorates within the party to help each other, especially with fund raising and canvassing.