Brendan Davis’ Speech to Grey Power

12 September 2022

Kia ora kotu Katoha

Thank you all for coming here today. It is great to see so many people interested in the local council elections.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Brendan Davis

I am originally from Ireland and have lived in New Zealand for over 24 years. I have spent 19 years in Rotorua and have a family of 4 children. I am a high school teacher and I love involvement with the community and helping when there is a need. I have always helped in the community from working as a teenager in Dublin night shelter feeding the homeless.

I have supported Rotorua community groups including Children’s day, SPCA and Riding for the disabled for many years.

I was also the treasurer for the Rotorua rock and gem club and I am the convenor for the Rotorua Kids fishout.

Last week we had over 200 children catch rainbow trout. We had a great time and the children gained a lot of confidence and we give something back to the community so it was a win-win and an enjoyable day for everyone. I would like to see more of these days and give lots more back to our community. I get out there and get things done that is what I am about.

If I should get elected I will work hard as that is just my nature I will represent you honestly with openness and accountability.

About 9 years ago I started to look at the council and I did not not like what I saw, the wastage of money, classroom, decisions that I thought were not very practical. I was compelled to gather up some of my own funds to try and get onto council. I did this as an independent and I got 3,500 votes with just myself and another friend helping out. I learnt alot about how this city works and this compelled me even more torun again this year. I probably do not need to tell you all, most of you know how things work in this city.

There is no democracy, we want accountability, we want engagement, we want to know what is going on. No more secret meetings.

We want to look after our beautiful city and bring it back to where it was even 3 years ago would be a great start.

So I am passionate about a lot of things like fighting against 3 waters, seeing rates capped. I think that it is very important for the demographics of the people we have in our city.

There are a lot of older people that have no future savings that cannot afford the sky-high rates that we are paying. I am passionate about keeping all our green spaces and reserves. People have already paid for these spaces that are not for sale. This is something that goes without saying they are not for bargaining. As I said there is a lot of wastage of money in council with the bad decisions that they have made. I do not like wasting money, especially my money, your money, our community’s money. It is very important that every dollar is accounted for. I have a practical mindset of working through problems to find solutions. I have the integrity to get this job done. I will be accountable and i believe a good council will create a secure safe and happy place to live so vote wisely and let us keep Rotorua beautiful

He waka eke noa we are all in this together.