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Wellington decides 2022: Who deserves your vote in the local body elections?

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Wellington is a city facing serious issues. Despite – or because of? – having a centre-right Mayor who’s been consistently outvoted by more progressive Councillors during the past three years, Wellington has made some important decisions to move towards a lower-emissions city that isn’t built on the cult of the car. But water, waste and sea level rise, plus the vital need to turn emissions reductions plans into action, mean there are huge issues to be addressed in the next term.

That’s why I’m thinking carefully about how to cast my votes for Mayor, Council and Regional Council. I haven’t finally decided how I’m going to vote, but here’s where I look for information and what I’m thinking.

Sources of information for voters

Here are some survey results and candidate analyses worth checking out:

Vote Climate (nationwide)
Generation Zero (nationwide)
Policy.nz (nationwide)
Living Streets Aotearoa Wellington candidates survey
Island Bay Healthy Streets candidate rankings

Personally, I vote mainly on climate policy, transport policy, environmental policy, and when it comes to sitting Councillors, whether they have shown the ability to get good outcomes in areas I care about. I always encourage people to pay attention to the Regional Council, not just the City Council, because the Regional Council plays a crucial role in Wellington’s transport system and many areas of environmental matters.

When it comes to existing or former Councillors who are standing again, a big factor for me is what they have actually achieved as Councillors, not just what they say they will do.

The elections I’ll be voting in are Mayor, Pukehīnau/Lambton Ward of Wellington City Council, and Poneke/Wellington Constituency of Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Mayor of Wellington

According to the only scientific poll I’ve seen, Paul Eagle (Labour-endorsed) entered the campaign very narrowly ahead of Tory Whanau (Greens-endorsed), with sitting Mayor Andy Foster not too far behind. These are three candidates the media has focused on.

I will be ranking Tory Whanau first of these three, followed by Andy Foster well ahead of Paul Eagle. Here’s why:

Tory Whanau has come across best on the campaign trail and appears to have the ability to bring a pro-climate action, pro-low carbon transport majority together on Council. My major reservation is her lack of experience in local body politics, but she has considerable experience at national level.

Andy Foster has been a mixed bag as Mayor. He got off to a very rocky start but has improved. He still tends to change sides at the last minute on major decisions, but has mostly supported climate action, low-carbon transport solutions, and the adoption of measures that embody Te Tiriti in local Government – or at least, stood aside and let them happen.

Paul Eagle is a former Councillor who is the current Labour MP for Rongotai. Despite his relative seniority, he has never been a Minister or chaired a Select Committee. The Labour Party want to replace him in Rongotai, and hit upon the solution of endorsing him as a Mayoral candidate. If he wins, this should trigger a by-election and allow Labour to select a more preferred candidate in Rongotai, such as Fleur Fitzsimons.

Paul, who as a Councillor was a known and at times vitriolic opponent of cycleways and other low-carbon transport options, has repaid Labour’s endorsement by running his own slate of centre-right candidates against Labour’s candidates, and refusing to support Labour candidates until put under duress. Instead, he has aligned himself with Diane Calvert, the leader of the right-wing faction on the existing Council.

I fear that the election of Paul Eagle as Mayor will result in Wellington going backwards on climate action, and lead to a hopelessly divided Council. I hope I am wrong about that, and if elected, I would urge him not to undo the good work of the previous term, and not to let his past positions on transport define him.

Of the candidates less talked up by the media, Ellen Blake has a great track record on walking and many other community issues, and a deep knowledge of how Council processes work.

Pukehīnau/Lambton Ward of Wellington City Council

In my local ward (from which three Councillors are elected), five candidates have impressed me. Sitting Councillors Iona Pannett and Tamatha Paul disagree strongly on housing policy, but nevertheless have worked both together and individually to get many important climate, transport, environment and Te Tiriti policies across the line. I’m backing both of them. Ellen Blake would make an excellent Councillor and her experience would be of benefit there.

Afnan al-Rubayee impressed me both when she came to my doorstep and at the Mt Victoria candidates’ meeting, though like all Labour candidates she faces the dilemma of whether she has to follow Paul Eagle’s lead if he is elected Mayor. I didn’t know anything about Jonathan Markwick prior to this campaign, but I liked him based on his presence at the MVRA meeting.

Pōneke/Wellington constituency of Wellington Regional Council

Your Regional Council vote is vital on transport & environment – it’s the Regional Council that is responsible for Wellington’s buses and trains. Five Regional Councillors are elected from this ward and I think seven candidates deserves careful consideration. Thomas Nash and Roger Blakeley have done excellent work throughout the previous term and are my top choices. Daran Ponter has done a good job overall. Yadana Saw impressed me at the candidates’ meeting, as did Chris Montgomerie – and there is a real dearth of women on the Regional Council. Thomas Bryan would be excellent to have on Council due to his personal experience of and knowledge of disability issues, and under the Dad jokes (which seemed to be a hit with the younger crowd at the MVRA meeting!) Chris Calvi-Freeman also knows his onions when it comes to transport.

A note on using your STV vote

I recommend ranking every candidate, with candidates you really don’t want elected ranked last.

As The Spinoff says in its guide: “Ranking someone last, and ranking every other candidate above them, is the best way to ensure a candidate you are really opposed to isn’t elected.”

No Other Place To Stand: An Anthology Of Climate Change Poetry From Aotearoa New Zealand

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Pile of copies of poetry anthology "No Other Place to Stand" ion table, with trees shown through window in background

I’m very pleased that my poem “Not for me the sunlit uplands,” first published in New Sea Land, is included in this new anthology. I’m looking forward to the Wellington launch on 14 July – check out the details below:

Auckland University Press invites you to the launch of NO OTHER PLACE TO STAND: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CLIMATE CHANGE POETRY FROM AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

Join editors Jordan Hamel, Rebecca Hawkes, Erik Kennedy and Essa Ranapiri – as well as plenty of special guests – to the celebration and launch party of this brilliant new anthology.

6pm, Thursday 14 July
Meow
9 Edward Street
Wellington
All welcome!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/389905359776491

Editors’ note: We’re also planning a Te Waipounamu launch for the anthology with Word Christchurch later in the year. 

Festival of Flash, Sunday 19 June

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I’m taking part in the Festival of Flash to celebrate 10 years of Flash Frontier magazine this Sunday, 19 June. There’s a lot going on – check it all out below.

Festival of Flash flyer

National Flash Fiction Day 2022 – an all-day Festival of Flash, closing with the awards night

A special day and evening celebrating ten years 2012-2022

Info and details here.  

Please join us at the Flash Frontier YouTube channel for our celebration of flash fiction in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Sunday 19 June 2022

Featuring: Special guests, musical interludes, new books, a celebration of languages of Aotearoa and features from NFFD’s centres
Youth stories & awards with Jack Remiel Cottrell
Adult stories & awards with Anne Kennedy and Kiri Piahana-Wong
NZ Society of Authors Regional awards
With special guests, raffle prizes and more!  
Please check out our panels and readings and then tune in for our national awards night.

Tune in here: Flash Frontier YouTube channel

Find this year’s Short List at the NFFD site, here,
with the youth Short List at
fingers comma toes.

Congratulations, all! 
A list of the festival events…

SUNDAY, 19 June 2022
Celebrating ten years 2012-2022!
 
 
lively discussions * guest readers * judges’ comments * NFFD awards * NZSA regional awards * raffle prizes * special features from our regions * musical performances * book giveaways
an all-day series of free events livestreamed to the Flash Frontier YouTube channel

more info here

09:00-10:00 AM Panel discussion: Shaping your narrative –novella-in-flash & story collections

10:15-11:15 AM Reading: Packing a punch in small spaces – nuance and humour

11:30-12:30 PM Panel discussion: Youth voices

12:45-01:45 PM Panel discussion: Fairy tales and myths

02:00-03:00 PM Reading: Selections from the youth long list

03:15-04:15 PM Panel discussion: Languages of Aotearoa

04:30-05:30 PM Panel discussion: Writing our world

06:00-08:00 PM ONLINE AWARDS NIGHT

Please go to the website for information
about festival topics, participants, links, etc.

nationalflash.org
Ngā mihi, Michelle Elvy   James Norcliffe   Gail Ingram 
 Rachel Smith   Vaughan Rapatahana
www.flash-frontier.com

The Last Days of the Coastal Property Boom – now closer than ever

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With a new analysis showing that rapid sea level rise is going to hit Aotearoa earlier and harder than expected – with Wellington one of the areas to be worst hit – this feels like a good, or at least appropriate, time to bring back my poem “The Last Days of the Coastal Property Boom”, first published in my 2016 collection New Sea Land and then republished on the excellent Talk Wellington blog.

We need to reduce emissions, massively and urgently, but we also need to deal as best we can with the climate effects that are already coming – worse floods, worse droughts, more sea level rise. Check out the draft National Adaptation Plan and have your say by 3 June.


The Last Days of the Coastal Property Boom

Lights on, curtains drawn, ‘Ode to Joy’

turned up loud to drown the pounding sea —

habits of prosperity surviving awareness of its end.

But uncurtained morning shows the ocean

nearer by a day, the last remaining dune

barely a memory of marram grass and halophytes.

High tide casts driftwood to the bottom step,

spume splits paint flakes from seaward-facing walls,

decking warps and peels as foundations wash away.

This was prime property when they saw it first,

the retirees’ dream of a quiet cottage, snug

between tarmac’s end and the start of the dunes.

They saw the waves and wondered, paced

the reassuring distance from high tide to front gate.

The LIM report should have warned them  

but lawyers hired by those with most value to lose

had overturned the Council’s plans

and the LIM report said nothing.

The estate agent’s hectic glibness, the bank’s eagerness to lend,

lulled their fears to a vague and distant concern.

They found an insurer who would cover them,

cocooned themselves in pensions and furnishings,

paid no attention as Greenland and West Antarctica

spritzed meltwater into the rising sea.

That was the stuff of one-minute world news roundups,

helicopter shots of nameless, faceless, drowning refugees

in lands a reassuring hemisphere away.

Until the coastal defences failed, until first-world cities

were sent scrambling backwards from the beaches,

a planet-wide Dunkirk unfolding in reverse.

Now the children call them daily, desperate

for them to make the move inland. Now the house

rises and falls to the rhythm of the tide.

Now the last of their furniture vanishes,

hand-carried down the narrow strip of land

to the sympathetic darkness of the moving van.

They emerge defeated, encircled by cameras,

the human-interest story of the moment,

the last of this rich coastline’s climate refugees.

The van departs for the hinterland, where tent towns

sprawl cold across a wind-assailed plateau.

The coast reverts to sea wrack and bird call.

Waves take all but their house’s foundations, latest

and most miniature of reefs. What remains

is memory, that widest, all-consuming sea.

From Tim Jones’s poetry collection New Sea Land (Mākaro Press, 2016)

The New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition 2022 is open!

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I edited the 2021 New Zealand Poetry Society anthology Kissing a Ghost, with the invaluable assistance of Anne Harré who did the design and production work – and I’m also going to edit the 2022 anthology.

Cover of poetry anthology Kissing a Ghost

Each year’s anthology includes all the winning, placed, highly commended and commended poems from the four categories of the NZPS’s International Poetry Competition, which means around half the poems in the anthology are chosen by the judges. My job as editor is to go through all the remaining competition entries and select those that I like most and that will make for a rounded anthology that works as a book.

Check out the competition info below from the New Zealand Poetry Society and start putting your competition entry together! The competition closes on 31 May 2022.

The New Zealand Poetry Society Competition for 2022 is open for entries!

Our competition is open to all members and non-members, worldwide, with members receiving an entry fee discount.

There are cash prizes to be won in each category, and all entries are eligible to be published in our anthology. Our annual anthology includes all placed and commended poems, as well as a selection of other favourite poems from the competition.

Poets can enter one of these four sections:
Open verse for adults (18 years and over)
Open verse for juniors (17 years or younger)
Haiku for adults (18 years and over)
Haiku for juniors (17 years or younger)

Class teachers can enter multiple poems from their students, using the school group form. There is also a discount for entering multiple entries as a school group.

Entry forms for all categories including school groups are now available to download on our website. Remember to read through the guidelines and rules for the section you’re submitting too, we’d hate to see your work disqualified. Since this international competition is open to all, forward this email to any and all friends, family, co-writers and fellow poetry enthusiasts, get the word out there!

Entries must be received by 31 May 2022.

Keen to enter? Click here for submission guidelines and entry forms!

Due to COVID-19, our competition is running solely online this year. If you have previously entered by post and would like guidance in entering online, we are happy to help. For this and any other queries, please email the Competition Coordinator, Georgia Wearing, at competition@poetrysociety.org.nz

Novella Review: “A Sky of Wretched Shells,” by Mark Blackham

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Cover image of "A Sky of Wretched Shells", a novella by Mark Blackham


Mark Blackham’s A Sky of Wretched Shells is the third book in The Cuba Press’ novella series, following my novella Where We Land and Zirk van den Berg’s I Wish, I Wish. Both Where We Land and A Sky of Wretched Shells are climate fiction novellas, but they’re very different: Where We Land is about our near-future response to climate change, while A Sky of Wretched Shells is set further in the future, when most of the world has fallen victim to ecological disaster and only one island offers hope for survival.

On the island of Woleai, 15-year-old Mala and his people live in relative peace and safety as the rest of the world falls apart. The arrival of two Western outsiders brings an end to this fragile equilibrium.

I won’t say more about the plot, because a lot happens in this novella that it would be a shame to spoil. I will say that there’s some really beautiful descriptive writing and imagery in A Sky of Wretched Shells: I got a strong sense of place from Mark Blackham’s novella.

Nevertheless, I struggled with some of the choices the central character, Mala, made – from my point of view, he persistently makes choices that puts his island and his people at greater risk. (Though my decision-making at age 15 may not have been the greatest, either, and the end of the novel suggests that he has made better choices than it first appears.)

The ending took the story in directions I didn’t expect, reactivating the sense of wonder I used to get as a teenager from reading science fiction, even as my adult eye was casting a more sceptical gaze over proceedings. So I ended the novella with mixed feelings: but given the quality of his descriptive writing and the scope of his imagination, I’m keen to see what stories Mark Blackham writes next.

A Fitting Finale: “The Forge”, by Barbara Howe

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Cover of novel "The Forge" by Barbara Howe

I’ve just finished reading The Forge by Barbara Howe, the fifth and final volume in her Reforging series. There’s an excellent introduction to the series, and each of the books in it, on Barbara Howe’s blog – I encourage you to read that introduction and to buy and read the books!

Here’s the author’s summary of the series:

The series is set in an alternate Europe, where Charlemagne, the great Earth wizard and king of the Franks, turned north to conquer the British Isles instead of going south and east into Italy and Saxony. With Europe a roiling mess of conflict, he directed his wisest and most powerful witches and wizards to use their magic to protect the kingdom’s borders and bind together the warring groups within the conquered territory. Their response was to create four powerful magical entities named the Offices, each working in a symbiotic relationship with the head of the corresponding elemental magic guild. The most powerful, the Fire Office, provided the country’s defences. The weakest, the Water Office, dispensed justice.

These four offices served the kingdom of Frankland well in its early days, but a thousand years after their forging, the country is strangling in their iron grip. The country’s needs had changed, but the offices couldn’t adapt. In their haste to build the offices, their creators never considered that repairs might be needed.

The first four books cover the assembling of a small group of Frankland’s most powerful witches and wizards, dedicated to rebuilding the four offices, and the challenges they face along the way in rebuilding one of the offices. Those challenges include a civil war over the nature of the changes that come with the reforging of that office.



Barbara describes the series as “High fantasy novels for readers from teens to adults”, and that’s true, but what I particularly liked about the series is how grounded the stories are in realism, Yes, there are spells; yes, there are arcane rituals; but no matter how strong they are in magic, the central characters – and the minor characters – feel like real people, with real people’s strengths and weaknesses, frustrations and unexpected moments of grace.

This isn’t “realism” George R R Martin style, in which Everything Is As Grimdark As Possible All The Time. The challenges facing the people of Frankland are severe, and not all of them rise to the occasion, but enough of them have enough of a sense of collective purpose to work through – or at least park – their differences and work together for the common good, despite the risks. The female leads in the series are as realistic as the male characters, brave, scared, exhausted, resolute.

Good characters, a gripping plot, good storytelling, and a gripping conclusion. The Forge – and the whole Reforging series – is well worth your time.

Three New Poetry Books: Shelter, Up Flynn Road…, and Kissing a Ghost

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One of my writing ambitions for 2022 is to get cracking on a new collection of poetry – my last few years have been very much about climate activism and, when I’ve been writing, climate fiction. Poetry is my first love as a writer and one I’m always keen to return to.

As a herald of what I hope will be more focus on reading and writing poetry in 2022,* here’s a review of a new poetry collection by Kirsten Le Harivel plus news of an anthology I contributed to and one I’ve edited.

*There is that idea for a sequel to Where We Land, though…

Review: Shelter, by Kirsten Le Harivel

Shelter is a collection of precisely observed poems that traverse cities, countries and places important to the poet: Glasgow, Ahmedabad, Kāpiti, and many others: a Tuapeka sheep truck, the Isle of Bute, Hiroshima, the corner of Cuba and Manners.

Kirsten Le Harivel has a sharp eye for people, places and the ways they interact, piling up words into pictures – that’s especially the case for the many fine prose poems in Shelter. There are many memorable lines here, and for much of the collection, the effect of the poems is cumulative rather than immediate. Helen Lehndorf says in her endorsement of the collection, “Le Harivel writes elegant, restrained poems which will soothe you, move you and ultimately, shelter you.”


Cover of poetry collection Shelter

It was the less restrained poems in Shelter, those with a clearer path through the elegant surface to the thoughts and feelings within, that appealed to me most. In her endorsement, Lynn Jenner comments that “Shelter contains the best poem about sex that I have ever read,” and it was the poems about sex and love that really stood out for me: funny, passionate, pissed off, or all three. I won’t quote “Bedroom”, but you’ll remember it once you’ve read it!

I will quote “Pillow talk” (p. 62):

“If you were here
the motes would float out
the upper window,
the breeze would linger,
there would be no interruptions.
I would ride your bed

and the smell of us would mingle…”

A beautiful poem about love, sex and recollection – but even better is “Writing conversations”, a love poem brought to you by the letter F where desire and The Oxford English Dictionary lose out to the Olympics: love as a sprint, not a marathon.

Shelter is powerful, controlled, and often smooth – yet it’s the sharper edges I’ll remember most.

New Anthology: Up Flynn Road, across Cook Strait, through the Magellanic Crowd

My poem “Interrupted Journey” is included in this new anthology of travel poems, edited by Norman P. Franke and published by Orplid Press. It’s a lovely production and there are some excellent poems here – find out more and buy your copy from Poppies Bookshop, Hamilton.

Cover of poetry anthology Up Flynn Road...

New Anthology: Kissing a Ghost

With Anne Harré, who did the design and production work, I edited this year’s New Zealand Poetry Society anthology Kissing a Ghost, which contains all the winning, placed, highly commended and commended entries from the NZPS International Poetry Competition 2021 plus additional poems I chose from among all the entries. Check out the lovely cover Anne designed!


Cover of poetry anthology Kissing a Ghost

This anthology contains a lot of fine contemporary poetry and haiku from Aotearoa and abroad. If you’d like to buy a copy, here’s how:

For New Zealand Orders:
https://buy.stripe.com/5kA7sP65zatkfoA5km

For Australian Orders: https://buy.stripe.com/cN23cz3Xr1WO90c3cf

For Rest of the World Orders:
https://buy.stripe.com/cN2eVh1PjdFwa4g9AE

Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy, Volume III

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Cover of Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy Volume III

I’m really pleased that my climate fiction story “The Double-Cab Club”, first published in Stuff’s Forever Project in January 2020, was selected for inclusion in this excellent annual anthology from Paper Road Press, edited by Marie Hodgkinson. Check out the Table of Contents – lots of fine writers and stories included! – and get your print or ebook copy.

Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy: Volume 3, edited by Marie Hodgkinson

The third volume in our annual anthology series celebrating the strength and diversity of local SFF writing.

Cover by Rebekah Tisch.

Buy the paperback here, or the ebook at all major ebook retailers.

Table of Contents:

New Zealand Gothic, by Jack Remiel Cottrell
Synaesthete, by Melanie Harding-Shaw
Kōhuia, by T Te Tau
Death confetti, by Zoë Meager
For Want of Human Parts, by Casey Lucas
How To Get A Girlfriend (When You’re A Terrifying Monster), by Marie Cardno
Salt White, Rose Red, by Emily Brill-Holland
Florentina, by Paul Veart
Otto Hahn Speaks to the Dead, by Octavia Cade
The Waterfall, by Renee Liang
The Double-Cab Club, by Tim Jones
Wild Horses, by Anthony Lapwood
You and Me at the End of the World, by Dave Agnew
The Secrets She Eats, by Nikky Lee
How To Build A Unicorn, by AJ Fitzwater
Even the Clearest Water, by Andi C. Buchanan
You Can’t Beat Wellington on a Good Day, by Anna Kirtlan
The Moamancer (A Musomancer short story), by Bing Turkby
They probably play the viola, by Jack Remiel Cottrell
Crater Island, by P.K. Torrens
A Love Note, by Melanie Harding-Shaw
The Turbine at the End of the World, by James Rowland

Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy: Volume 3
Edited by Marie Hodgkinson
ISBN 978-1-99-115030-1

Climate Fiction, Climate Fact: My Writers in Schools visit to Nelson-Tasman

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Tim Jones running a Writers in Schools workshop at Motueka High School

In early August, shortly before large parts of the country went into COVID lockdown, I visited 5 schools in Nelson-Tasman on a visit organised by the Read NZ Te Pou Muramura Writers in Schools scheme and sponsored by the Rātā Foundation.

Writers in School is a very worthwhile scheme that connects schools who want writers to visit, with writers who are keen to visit! I’ve done some individual school visits under the scheme before – the most recent, a very enjoyable visit to Wellington East Girls’ School to do a Q&A with a class who’d been reading my climate fiction novella Where We Land – but never a tour.

The trip was initiated by Motueka High School, who asked whether I could come to the school for a series of talks and workshops with their students on writing climate fiction and non-fiction. I said I’d like to do that if the trip could be combined with visits to other schools in the region, and thanks to excellent cooperation between Nelson-Tasman schools and ReadNZ, I ended up visiting five schools in three days:

Nelson College
Tapawera Area School
Motueka High School
Waimea College
Waimea Intermediate

I ran workshops and gave talks on writing climate fiction, writing fiction in general, and writing opinion pieces (“columns”), with students ranging from Year 5 to Year 13.

What did I take away? First of all, much as I enjoyed the visit, I was shattered after three days – I have no idea how teachers do it for week after week! Both the students, and the teachers and librarians, I met inspired me.

Talking of teachers, I very much appreciated the lovely hospitality I was offered, which kept me fed and watered throughout my tight schedule. My lunch wth the English teachers at Motueka High School was a particular highlight.

My final session finished the tour on a high note. I had only an hour with this self-selected groups of keen readers and writers in Years 7 and 8 at Waimea College, and my energy was down by the time I got there, but the group’s knowledge of and enthusiasm for writing was remarkable. When we did a brainstorm on “what makes stories work well”, one young student replied “foreshadowing and foretelling”, and when I asked her what those were, she gave a much better explanation than I could have done, with relevant examples!

I loved seeing the enthusiasm of the students, yet I couldn’t help asking myself: what sort of future are these young people facing? More and worse storms. More fires. More floods – all of which have hit the Nelson-Tasman region in the last couple of years. And the sea creeping ever upwards, ever inwards. It isn’t their fault. It isn’t even our fault, unless you happen to be, for example, a senior oil company executive or a coal mine owner. But it’s up to all of us to demand and take action to cut emissions sharply now, because if we don’t, an already dangerous future is bound to become much worse.

Herald of Poseidon: Here’s how I appeared to one student at Motueka High School. (For the record, I am flattered by this portrait!)


Handwriting and hand-drawn image of Tim Jones by a Motueka High School student

Photos and image credits from my day at Motueka High School: https://www.facebook.com/motuekahslibrary