Council refusal to rent Claudelands creates a minefield of ethical issues
RICHARD SWAINSON
OPINION:
A distinction can be made between public and private morality. Honesty, accountability and industry would fall into the former category, particularly if one were, say, a local body politician. A basic standard of behaviour should be the least ratepayers receive from their elected representatives.
You need not agree with everything councillors stand for – indeed, you could vehemently disagree with all their policies and political philosophies – but a certain integrity of performance is to be expected from them if democracy is to operate. Lying, deception and the misappropriation of funds are out.
Private morality is a different thing entirely. Dress standards, sexual conduct, infidelity, abortion, prostitution, pornography, religious belief, gambling habits and drug taking are all matters to be sorted out by the individual and his or her conscience.
Regretfully, governments both national and provincial do play a broad, overseeing role in things, but it is one that is limited by a strong tradition of demarcation between church and state. And so it should be, for private morality is only a black-and-white issue in the minds of extremists and hypocrites. Let he or she who is without sin cast the first stone. The rest of us mere mortals are content to do unto others as they would do unto us.
The failings of the Hamilton City Council in terms of public morality have been well catalogued this year. The kindest word one could use regarding its handling of the V-8s is incompetence. The reckless squandering of $38 million of our money on little more than an egotistical whim of a key individual or two and the failure of our public servants to subject the petrol-fumed fantasy to the scrutiny fundamental to their office bring to mind an old children’s story. Michael Redman was the Pied Piper, playing a seductive tune and our council and its bureaucrats were the rats, enraptured by the music, running towards oblivion with a heady indifference to reason, duty or fiscal reality.
The fact that those very same rats now presume to lecture their ratepayer victims on issues of private morality constitutes an unspeakable arrogance. The council’s decision to deny the Erotic Lifestyles Expo permission to use the Claudelands event centre is wrong on every conceivable level. It is wrong economically, it is wrong logically and, arguably, it is wrong ethically.
The financial arguments in favour of the event need little pleading. The state of our city coffers has been well publicised. Hamilton is in effect a beggar that cannot be a chooser. A metropolis, which is looking to cut back on library hours and is considering uprooting the rose gardens that define it on the world’s horticultural stage, is not one that can afford to turn up its nose at between $50,000 and $60,000 per annum.
That the proposed venue of the expo is widely thought to be a monetary millstone around the council’s neck to rival the V-8s, makes its decision not to utilise Claudelands all the more bitterly ironic.
Must we suffer rates increases so that the prudes on the council can sleep easily at night, clearer in conscience because public facilities are vacant rather than cluttered with revenue-generating activities of a “dirty” and perverse nature?
The puritanical line might hold water if Hamilton were Salt Lake City. Reading some councillors’ opinions on the matter, it is clear they think that is where they are. A lot of hogwash has been spoken about how we are “family friendly”. While Hamilton isn’t Las Vegas, we are hardly any more conservative than other parts of the country.
How many sex shops legally operate in town? The phone directory lists four in Victoria St. The city has a casino at its centre and there are strip clubs at either end of town.
I don’t have much first-hand knowledge of local prostitution, but I was crudely propositioned the other week on the main street at 7.30pm.
Even if Hamilton was some biologically denying bastion of righteousness, the council would still have no business in telling its citizens how to conduct their sex lives.
If an activity is legal, if it operates in a confined space where appropriate age restrictions can be enforced, if all relevant health and safety regulations are adhered to, the individual moral objections of councillors are an irrelevance. Denying ratepayers their private rights doesn’t compensate for the council’s past public wrongs. In fact, it does the opposite, further questioning the organisation’s grasp of morality of any kind.
– Waikato Times
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I’ve attended an Erotica expo at the Logan Campbell Centre in Auckland a few years ago, and like Kim had a great time. I don’t believe the city council has the mandate to regulate and decide what is and isn’t fit for our city. We, as individuals choose what we want to go and spend our money on. The simple thing is if you don’t like it, don’t go. The council doesn’t black out the sex and swearing on various TV shows that are beamed into our homes. Is that on their agenda too? The council is there to effectively manage the ratepayers money and frankly they appear better at mis-managing it.
I hear it costs around $200k a week to run Claudelands Arena etc so if the council are going to reject hirage for events such as Erotica then perhaps the councillors should be asked to pay the difference lost in hirage when they play judge and jury.
I hope as the self-appointed moral police, the City Council will be refusing to allow the proposed SBW boxing match to proceed at the arena. Obviously violence (even sanctioned) is not particularly family friendly and therefore should not be allowed. I await the the news of the councilors veto with baited breath.
I so agree with this. Q: What right do they have to be our moral guardians? A: NO RIGHT whatsoever. I am absolutely astounded at the incompetence of this Council. While I am at it, what kind of idiot approved changing the entrance of the Underground carpark? How much money has been spent on that disaster, to cause traffic jams on Anglesea Street, just so there is vehicle access all the way through on Alexandra St? Have these councillors ever heard of ROI? Shall I also start on the revamp of Garden Place – YET AGAIN. ROI? None. Everyone I have spoken to is at a loss as to the crackhead decisions these so called moral councillors come up with. Time for a change – too right.
good article, still amazes how me HCC seems to just want to keep doing its own thing, regardless of public feedback. Cant wait to vote them out
Council may have had their fair share of stuff-ups – rightfully harshly criticised for (!) – but they definitely made the right call denying permission to the Expo. Sorry Richard – your article is essentially arguing that two wrongs will make a right.
What I don’t really understand is how an Erotica expo is any different from the Home and Garden Show, the On Your Bike Expo, or the Pet Expo. All are niche events targeted at a captive audience. It would be understandable for the Council to have certain stipulations regarding advertising it, but to ban it outright? If it’s all between consenting adults, that already makes it better than the rodeo (animals don’t get to consent). Who’s running this Council, the Catholic Church?
finally the voice of logic and reason. I sooo agree with this
I totally agree with Richard, In Melbourne it is called the SEX EXPO and they love it thousands go to and thoroughly enjoy this very well organised show. I have been to it and as a kiwi, I had the biggest laugh and enjoyed myself immensely it does not make me a pervert a sex addict or somebody who throws her body around to everyone, these are well paid people who enjoy what they do, and get paid for it big time. You would be amazed at the people who do go to these events, workers from all levels of employment, they shouldn’t judge something, unless they have tried it, look what happened to the V8′s just a thought.
Richard: you have hit the nail completely on the head. Julie Barry as moral guardians what a joke. The same council that has screwed us all financially are now playing moral guardians when really the only moral action they should collectively consider is standing down and making hefty donations to the local foodbank and women’s refuge. While I am most definately not a Steve Crow or Erotica supporter the council decided to build a whopping events centre (rumoured cost $100m +) and now doesn’t seem to understand they need to make it pay its bills.