Does Trevor Mallard even know where Lower Hutt is?

Trevor Mallard has thrown his weight behind the (Labour Party) capaign to make Ken Laban Mayor of Lower Hutt. His accusation is that current mayor David Ogden is not competent.

Well, I know Trevor Mallard earns $200k+ as a cabinet minister, gets chauffuered to work and home, and jets off to Hollywood parties, pushes more and more work onto councils to do, ups petrol taxes and other Government charges, decides to spend our money on politicians, etc. so he might not notice about the rest of us who want council to provide its core services and keep rates down.

There are two issues he attacks the Ogden on:

• The "Exide" issue that has dragged on for several years - toxic waste from the plant is not able to be disposed of - but the only think Ogden could do is withdraw the Resource Consent and force the plant to close.
• The frustration of Eastbourne residents who think Hutt City Council don't listen to them. But that issue goes back to the 1980s when the Labour Government (including the MP for Hamilton West of the time) force the Eastbourne Borough Council to merge with Lower Hutt City.

In the meantime, David Ogden and his team have kept rates rises to the lowest of any council in NZ (in real terms, rates are up 0.1% in the past three years - how many Aucklanders would like to say that!), cancelled all of the dubious big spending plans of the previous mayor (including redeveloping Hutt Park for the Wellington NRL franchise) and concentrating on upgrading infrastructure like roads and stormwater.

And as for incompetency, do I only need say four letters - N C E A.