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Waitomo District has two voting wards – Urban and Rural.    Urban is the Te Kuiti urban area.  Rural covers the rest of the district.  There are maps on the council website but as a candidate I am not allowed to include a link in my posts. 

If you are voting in the Waitomo Rural Ward – there are seven candidates standing for three positions.  Every voter will have three votes for this ward as well as one vote for Mayor.  There are two candidates standing for Mayor.

If you are voting in the Waitomo Urban Ward – there are four candidates standing for three positions.  You will have three votes for this ward as well as one vote for Mayor.

The names of all candidates and those who nominated them can be found on the Electionz website https://www.electionz.com/LGENominations/ELT20WO22_candidates.htm

This is a postal election.  Voting papers will start arriving in the mail from 16 September.  Voting closes 12 noon on Saturday 8 October 2022.

Choose wisely.
 

Candidate contact details are public – unless candidates have specifically requested otherwise.  All contact details for candidates for Waitomo District Council election can be found at https://www.electionz.com/lge2022_resource/contacts.html

The best contact for me is by email at janette@briarpatch.co.nz – please feel free to fire me any questions and I’ll happily answer them both directly and through this page and on my website https://www.briarpatch.co.nz/Janette+Osborne+-+Candidate+for+Waitomo+District+Council.html

I’ll be regularly publishing information over the next few weeks to build a picture of what skills and experience I can bring to serve our community and what visions for the future I have for our region. 

Remembering that my visions are just my personal views and my role as a councillor (if I am fortunate enough to become one)  is to understand the needs and aspirations of the whole community and to work collegially with the other councillors and the Mayor to arrive at the best outcomes for the community as a whole. 

Affordability is important for everyone and I’m quite skilled in achieving the most with the least amount of money so will always seek to find solutions which are the best value for money and seek to understand what grants and subsidies are available to supplement rate payer funding.
 

I was born in Balclutha, South Otago and we had a sheep farm between Milton and Balclutha – that’s me in the pushchair. 

My father was a third-generation sheep farmer – with my great grandfather having immigrated to farm in the Owaka area (near Balclutha). 

My mother was born near Colchester in England and after having trained as a nurse and then a midwife in the east end of London she immigrated to New Zealand in 1952. 

When my father retired from farming, we moved to Nelson – where I finished my schooling and was fortunate enough to be introduced to rowing as a sport.

My working life started in Nelson and has taken me to Wellington, London and Christchurch.  In 2009 while visiting Waitomo Caves I met my now husband Kim Osborne and have lived with him on his family’s sheep and beef farm near Waitomo Caves for the past twelve years.

I have loved getting to know and becoming part of the local community – it is a great place to live and work and very much home now!

Yes – I am vaccinated.

Yes – I adhere to mandates

No – I am not a member of and I do not support Voices for Freedom.

However, I do respect other people’s personal choices and there are people in the community who have chosen not to be vaccinated for their own reasons and I respect that is their choice to make. 

I hope that my right to choose is also respected.

I feel it is time to move on and not dwell on the mandates of the past – whether we agreed with them or not the majority of the mandates are now in the past.

I will continue to respect others by wearing my mask when required or asked or just if I feel more comfortable doing so.

What work experience can I bring to the table as a councillor?

In a future post I’ll talk about my governance experience – but here are some of the companies and organisations I have had the honour of working for – either as a full-time employee or as a contractor.  In my working life I have worked in a drycleaner, been a shop assistant, cleaned toilets, been a hotel housemaid, been a barmaid, a waitress, a secretary, a typist, a typewriter salesperson, a computer salesperson, a management accountant, project accountant, systems accountant, finance manager and NZ Accountant for an international wool company.

I’ve learned something new in every single job!

Not all of that experience is going to be applicable to the role of Councillor – but some of it sure will be useful!!

If you want to see more details, please hop across to my LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/janette-osborne/

The Policy NZ Site is now live with information on candidates' policies - click on the policies tab to compare across all candidates. Unfortunately, only three of the seven candidates for the rural ward have completed this so far.

I'll be expanding on what I mean for each policy over the next couple of weeks. Difficult to wrap everything up into a few words - so hope they aren't misinterpreted - please just ask.

Remembering also that I will be one of seven - I will bring these to the table but final decisions are collective between the Mayor and the six councillors. No one candidate can guarantee that something will occur we can only promise that we will bring it to the table and advocate and also listen to what the community want and advocate on your behalf.

https://policy.nz/2022/waitomo-district-council-waitomo-rural-ward/candidates/janette-osborne

I have proven governance experience to bring to the table.  In future posts I’ll talk about the governance training I have undertaken (at my own expense) and the qualifications I have gained. 

I have previous governance experience as a company director of a national wool company (CP Wool – now Wools of NZ), including chairing the audit and risk committee.  I also chaired NZ’s largest farmer owned wool co-operative (Primary Wool Co-Operative). 

As well I completed a three-year term as a Farmer Councillor on the Beef and Lamb Farmer Council and was part of the Government’s Wool Summit and initial Wool Working Group.

In previous years I was the secretary for the National Council of Wool Interests and Campaign for Wool in NZ as well as being a board member of Textiles New Zealand.

I believe in life-long learning and governance is just like any other trade – there is always the opportunity to learn more in order to serve better.  Learning is fun and stimulating! 

I have been a member of the Institute of Directors since 2008 and regularly attend their lunchtime and evening events where I always come away having learned something new.

Education is an investment and over the years I have paid my own way to complete fourteen Institute of Directors Courses ranging from one to five days duration.  These include the following one-day essential courses – Governance, Finance, Strategy, Not-For-Profit, Rural, Digital, Health and Safety.  In addition, I have also completed Advanced Health and Safety Governance, Chairing Essentials, Ethics – How Directors Do Business, Ethical Dilemmas in the Board Room, Audit and Risk Committees, Chairing the Board and the five-day Company Directors Course. 

I have also completed a two-day governance accelerator programme with Co-Operative Business New Zealand and a two-day leadership and development programme with Federated Farmers.

I am a member of Risk NZ and attended the 2021 Risk NZ Annual Conference but was unable to attend this year’s conference.  Risk and Opportunity governance is an area I want to undertake further study in.

I was also fortunate enough to be accepted onto a fully paid five-day development programme with Beef + Lamb which covered two days each of effective communication skills and leadership training and a further day and evening of governance training.

Over the past couple of years, I have also been fortunate to be one of the trustees selected to attend Energy Trusts NZ and Downstream electricity industry conferences on behalf of WESCT.

If I’m smiling like a Cheshire Cat in this photo – it is because I was so stoked to achieve my goal of becoming a Chartered Director (CMinstD).  As well as serving on a qualifying board, to gain this qualification there was a five-day residential course costing $8,000 which took me ages to save for, then a 3,000-word assignment and an exam.

Even though my previous qualifications took longer and cost more – the Chartered Director qualification is the one I am most proud of achieving.    Through promoting good governance and working collegially around the table I feel this is where I can make a real contribution to our community.

My other qualifications are a Bachelor of Commerce – double major in Management and Accounting (BCom) covering 30 papers over four years. 

Following on from this I completed a year’s general accounting work experience followed by two years mentored specific accounting work experience in an approved training organisation, a professional exam (PCE1), a further year part time Professional Accounting School (PAS) – which cost a small fortune and a final Professional Exam (PCE2) which was six hours long and still gives me nightmares!  A total of seven years of study and work experience to become a Chartered Member of the Institute of Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA).

An ongoing requirement for both professional memberships is continuing professional development (CPD) with a minimum of 40 hours per year – I have always far exceeded this – because I genuinely like learning new things.  I believe this will serve me well if I am fortunate enough to be elected as a councillor as there is a tremendous amount of material to come up to speed with as quickly as possible.

For further details please check out my Linked in Page https://www.linkedin.com/in/janette-osborne/

Whether it is helping teach knitting at Waitomo Caves School, or helping the museum analyse the past and forecast the future when COVID hit, selling raffle tickets at sports day, being on the Beef and Lamb Farmer Council and helping with PC1 Submissions or acting on your behalf as a trustee on Waitomo Energy Services Customer Trust - I have been in this community for 12 years and given back because I care.

I am standing for Council for our community because I believe I have skills and experience that complement others putting their hands up to be part of the council team.

I am straight up and honest - no hidden agendas.

I promise to work hard, listen and explore all views, read widely and ask questions in order to find solutions that are best for the whole community. I will work collegially with my fellow councillors and mayor to ensure as a team we form the best courses of action for our community for both now and the future.

Benjamin Franklin once said that “If you want something done, ask a busy person”.  There is truth to that statement – the busier a person is the better they manage their time. 

Apart from three years full time accounting work, since 2008 I have been what is known as a “portfolio worker”.  This means I have several different roles and clients at once as well as my own business. 

In the past this has included consultancy and contract work as well as directorship positions.  This is the work I am putting aside to stand for Council.

My current outside roles are as a Trustee with Waitomo Energy Services Customer Trust (WESCT) and as Treasurer of Waikato Rowing Club.

I am also involved on farm – but mostly in the office with the compliance, administration, finances and planning.  I do love to get out and help when I can or when I am needed.  However, we have other casual helpers available so that I don’t have to be out helping if I have other deadlines.

I also have an online natural knitting yarns business called Briar Patch that I started in 2006.  Again, this is a business that I can put as much or as little time into to work around other commitments.  It is a great part-time business that provides base income that allows me to undertake voluntary work and pay for the costs of further study.

I am practised now in knowing when I need to be concentrating on each of my responsibilities in order to allow enough time to read the hundred or so pages for each meeting.  The meetings (including the Council meetings) all fall at different times of the month so the workload is nicely spread out.

Contributing back to the community through being a councillor is something that I have aspired to for a long time.  I am fortunate that my life is now structured to allow me to commit 20 plus hours per week to this role and I am expecting it to be close to full time for the first few months if I am fortunate enough to be elected.  There is a considerable amount of foundation reading and learning needed to be able to get up to speed quickly and start contributing.

I was going to write about policies today – but I can’t get Saturday out of my head.  I was honoured to be invited to the meet the candidates event at the Piopio Hall and the previous week to the Te Kuiti event.   Both of these were fantastic events and are available online to watch.

These events were organised by the incredibly hard-working volunteers from Waitomo Rate Payers Residents Collective – to say I am in awe and humbled by their mahi is a total understatement!

Both Kahutoi Te Kanawa and Katrina Winn have travelled from Auckland two weekends in a row at their own expense to help promote democracy in our district.  Lisa Hill and her whanau have put on amazing kai.  Sue French was also a great help as time keeper.  Catherine Manawaiti also puts in a huge amount of mahi.   And there are others who also make large contributions of their own time and money.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you.

The collective have done an incredible job of promoting democracy and I would strongly encourage you all to join the Waitomo Rate Payers and Residents group on facebook to learn more about all of the candidates and to watch all or part of the two meet the candidate events.

Also pop across to Eady Tanirau Manawaiti – for Te Kuiti Urban Ward….. and read what he has to say – I agree with him it was also a great opportunity to observe team dynamics. 

Please take the time to join the Waitomo Rate Payers and Residents facebook group and please take the time to vote! 

Ka nui te mihi (Thank you so much) Te Miri and MFM Te Reo o Te Iwi for everything that you are doing for democracy and encouraging people to vote in the local government elections. 

I was humbled and honoured to be interviewed by Te Miri last Friday morning – especially during Te Wiki o Te Reo MaÌ„ori (MaÌ„ori Language Week).  Off-air I learned a lot from Te Miri about the legislative history of Te Reo.  I am still processing that I knew nothing about this history – how did I miss that education – was it just not included???

Fifty years ago on 14 September 1972, a petition with 30,000 signatures was delivered to parliament asking for active recognition of te reo MaÌ„ori.  It took a further fifteen years for the Maori Language Act 1987 to be passed giving official language status to te reo MaÌ„ori.

Today we have the opportunity to witness history being made with the third reading of the Maniapoto Claims Settlement Bill in Parliament.  For those who have not travelled to Wellington to witness this in person – MFM Te Reo o Te Iwi are livestreaming with videos also being recorded for later viewing.

We live in a blended community and for those who aren’t familiar with the history and significance of what today’s third reading means I would strongly urge you to take the time and effort to learn and understand.

Go to Facebook – watch the videos, ask questions, go to google, Go to the Maniopoto Trust Board site https://www.maniapoto.iwi.nz/treaty-settlement/maniapoto-deed-of-settlement-post-settlement-governance-entity-2/ Even reading the bill itself will enlighten and educate https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2021/0104/latest/LMS295655.html?src=qs

As part of our blended community we should all be making an effort to understand the history and importance of today.

Ngā mihi

One week before postal votes must be posted and only 162 votes have been counted in the Waitomo Rural Ward and 215 in the Te Kuiti Ward. 

If votes were spread evenly over the seven rural candidates this means that councillors would be voted in with less than 30 votes each!!!   Counted votes are currently at a third of previous elections.

Don’t risk your local representation being taken away – show Central Government that local government is valued by casting your vote!!

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If you haven’t received your voting pack – please contact Waitomo District Council to cast a special vote.