Buck names her team

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 1

Buck names her team

Nihil utile quod non honestum

By

KAY FORRESTER

Linda Constable, the campaign co-ordinator for independent Christchurch mayoral candidate, Ms Vicki Buck, is also a Labour candidate for a seat on the new Christchurch City Council. Ms Buck named her campaign team and unveiled a little of her campaign to supporters yesterday. It will be led by Ms Constable, a Labour city councillor and candidate in October’s local body election. Ms Constable was not the only Labour candidate or official at yesterday’s meeting. She said the party knew of her role in Ms Buck’s campaign. Labour decided three weeks ago not to field its own mayoral candidate. It has also decided not to officially endorse Ms Buck’s campaign, but the chairman of its Canterbury Regional Council, Mr Peter Dyhrberg, believes a number of Labour people will be active in Ms Buck’s campaign. He said there was no conflict about that involvement because there was no Labour mayoral candidate. “We knew a number of people would want to support Vicki if there was no Labour candidate — especially the women,” he said.

Mr Dyhrberg believed Ms Buck was still a member of the Labour Party. Her membership had not been cancelled when she stood as

an independent. Ms Buck said she understood her membership of the party had ■ lapsed. If it had not, she would resign, she said. Ms Buck’s publicity director, Mr Derek McCullough, believes she will have the votes of many Labour people. But Ms Buck was yesterday wearing black and yellow colours of her own campaign. Sixty people at her meeting were urged to vote for a positive choice. Ms Buck told them they would be voting for the future of Christchurch. They were her campaign because; as an independent, she did not have the backing of a well-oiled party machine. Christchurch had everything going for it but confidence and a positive attitude, she said. Her campaign would offer that. Ms Buck listed the issues as jobs, leadership, careful monitoring of ratepayers’ money, tourism, using the resource that older people were in the community, and easy access to a mayor people were comfortable with. “I won’t be saying in this campaign that Hamish (Sir Hamish Hay, the incumbent Mayor) is too old. I don’t believe anyone is too old. But I do believe he is too dull,” she said. It would be a “clean” campaign, Ms Buck said.

By

SUZANNE KEEN

Canterbury Labour candidates for the new Canterbury Regional Council believe the authority will be able to contribute greatly to job creation and growth throughout the region.

The Canterbury Labour team announced yesterday to contest the October regional council election comprises five candidates for each of the Christchurch constituencies, Godley (south) and Fitzgerald (north). Labour’s local body committee chairman, Mr Mike Morley-Bunker, said the team’s motto could be “growing for the people.” Its objective was to create jobs through sensible development. Only one of the team, Cr Alex Clark, is also a Labour candidate for the new Christchurch City Council. He will contest the Godley constituency for the regional council.

Cr Clark has been a member of the Canterbury United Council for four years. He has also been a member of the Christchurch Transport Board and the Canterbury Hospital Board. The other candidates for Godley are Dr Colin Meurk, Mr John Freeman, Ms Diane Lucas and Ms Diana Shand. Mr Freeman served three years on the Christchurch Drainage Board and is a

member of the North Canterbury Catchment Board. He is also a member of the Taylors Mistake Ratepayers’ Association. Ms Shand, a business and marketing consultant, recently retired as a Human Rights Commissioner. She is a member of the Canterbury University Council and a former executive member of the Canterbury Promotion Council.

Settlement Committee and the Environmental Council.

Ms Lucas is a landscape architect. She is an appointed member of the South Canterbury Land

Dr Meurk is a plant ecologist with 20 years professional experience and is an appointed member of the North Canterbury Catchment Board. Labour candidates for the Fitzgerald constituency are Mrs Judy Waters, Dr Neil Cherry and Messrs George Lucking, John Gray and Dennis Hills. Dr Cherry is a university lecturer in meteorology at Lincoln College. He

was the Labour candidate for Fendalton in the 1987 General Election. Dr Cherry is also an active member of several meteorological organisations.

Mr Lucking is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and a former chairman of the organisation’s Canterbury branch. He is a trustee of the Christchurch Children’s Holiday Camps Trust, and the Christchurch Playgrounds Advisory Committee. Mrs Waters is a member of

the Lyttelton Harbour Board and the North Canterbury Catchment Board.

Mr Hills was a candidate for the Waimairi District Council in 1980, 1983 and the 1985 by-election. He was a candidate for the Christchurch Drainage Board in 1986. Mr Gray is an educatortutor employed by the Anglican Church and the Christchurch Polytechnic. He is a former president of Labour Youth in Southland. Mr Gray is one of the Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati-porou. Mr Morley-Bunker said the candidates were experienced, professional people and that reflected the “somewhat sophisticated” role of the new regional council. Cr Clark said the new body would be totally different to the present United Council which had been “doomed from the start” and was starved of money, manpower and resources.

The candidates said they were standing for the whole region and realised thajt the city and rural areas would have to work together.