"Of the 42 people standing for election, 30 who answered the Stronger Together Keep Māori Wards survey said they would vote in favour in the referendum being held alongside the local body elections. Only four said they would vote against, and eight either did not respond or refused to answer. [...] Those who said they would vote to get rid of Māori wards were sitting councillor William Wood and newcomers Hayden Fitzgerald, Glen Williams and Jackie Wheeler. Schmidt described their opposition as “uninformed and out of touch”. Those in favour, in alphabetical order, were: Wajeha Akbaryan, Brent Barrett, Rachel Bowen, Melanie Butler, Zulfiqar Butt, Vaughan Dennison, Lew Findlay, Roly Fitzgerald, Mark Gunning, Nelson Harper, Cameron Jenkins, Lorna Johnson, Eric Judd, Jack Koh, Bonnie Kuru, Debi Marshall-Lobb, Quintin McGregor, Orphée Mickalad, Michael Morris, Tobias Nash, Karen Naylor, Adrian Phillips, Eldhose Poovathumveettil Mathew, Atif Rahim, Caleb Riddick, Zakk Rokkanno, Grant Smith, Michael Strachan, Richard Woolgar and Kaydee Zabelin. All the mayoral candidates said they would vote in favour of retaining Māori wards."
"Manawatū Standard civics reporter Janine Rankin tried to find out how Palmerston North City Council candidates defined the difference and what they would cut to keep rates rises down. There were 25 responses from candidates in the Te Hirawanui general ward."
"Making people pay to use the nearly-completed Te Ahu a Turanga road replacing the closed Manawatū Gorge will be opposed by the Palmerston North City Council. Councillor Lorna Johnson, who seconded Cr Brent Barrett’s call for the council to make a submission to keep the new route free from tolls, said the proposed costs to users would be “highway robbery”. [...] The councillors who supported imposition of a toll were Orphée Mickalad, William Wood, Leonie Hapeta and Mark Arnott."
"Palmerston North’s Te Pūao Māori ward is here to stay for the 2025 city council elections. Mayor Grant Smith and 14 councillors voted unanimously in favour of retaining the ward on Wednesday. The vote was forced by a recent law change."
Includes profiles of Dave Popplewell (New Conservatives) and William Wood (National)
"New Conservative candidate David Poppelwell was firm. Legalising cannabis and euthanasia would be the wrong call and lead down a “slippery slope”, and the daily updates on Covid-19 during ”prime-time television” was too much. Poppelwell challenged the Government’s actions during the pandemic, questioning the powers given to police."
"The National Party's teenage Palmerston North candidate William Wood has apologised after appearing to impersonate Adolf Hitler in an image resurfaced online. "The photo was taken when I was 14," Wood, 18, told Newshub in a statement on Tuesday. "It was an error on my part. I apologise for any offence that it may have caused.""
"National's 17-year-old candidate for Palmerston North, William Wood, has removed a public photograph on his Facebook page showing a friend making a hand gesture adopted by white supremacists. The photograph shows Wood and four male friends at Parliament for a mock UN Security Council summit. One friend is wearing a red baseball cap with United States President Donald Trump's election slogan "Make America Great Again" and making the "Okay" hand gesture."
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