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Simon O'Neill

@sjponeill.bsky.social

2K followers 280 following 17K posts

Green-leaning and living, Rottie lover, rural dwelling Aotearoan.. ...until I left the Air Force for DOC after 28 years in the military, most if not all of my career decisions had been shaped by the Airfix and Revell catalogues from the 1970s...

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 2h

It's so very good - and sad....

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 2h

Everything that Paul said.

Local govt in Aotearoa is so badly broken between useless CEs, a broken electoral system and senior council staff who are thete purely for lifestyle....

I won't miss it...

Paul_BarlowNZ @paulbarlownz.bsky.social · 2h

And finally - the most rewarding part for me, despite a raft of results I really dislike, was the sheer volume of people who messaged and told me this was the first time they’ve voted in local elections - that feels like a win no matter the results!

a r2d2 robot is standing in the sand near a rock

ALT: a r2d2 robot is standing in the sand near a rock

media.tenor.com

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 2h

Cheek of @thepost-nz.bsky.social to reprint these words when it was one of the primary sources of the attacks on Mayor Whānau...

The Post @thepost-nz.bsky.social · 3h

"That must never be normalised, and every councillor, every single one of us, has a duty to call it out and shut it down. That’s how we build a council worthy of the people it serves."

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 3h

I know - some squirrely little editor hiding out the back...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 4h

Tagline v actual headline.

All totally impartial and unbiased...

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 4h

If 2025 has taught us anything, it is that we don't need to be elected to engage the elected.

We can still call the cookers out, make the Chungs of local government accountable and make Aotearoa a better place district by district...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 4h

That question was on the back of the voting papers so a lot of voters probs missed it - just another Electionz f*ck-up...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 4h

Tron: SharkJump...?

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 5h

Hopefully the final tally will take him out...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 8h

The measure of success will be the number of days between "We've capped rates" to "We've run out of money"...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 9h

It's all good so long as you have good stpries to go with it...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 9h

We're a distributed rural community - no bins out in any of the smaller communities with a 40+ drive to the nearest drop-off location...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 9h

The eye brows may be a problem - all the rest is just 'colour'...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 9h

Deep down, they all love it...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 9h

Yes.

It's not just that people don't vote, an equla issue is that people who would rock at it don't get engaged.

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 9h

As a general rule, councils are not very good at this.

Performance, process and rules need to be consistent across all districts.

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 9h

For local elections, take the admin off Electionz - who cluster it every time - and give it to the Electoral Commission.

Ensure the rules are consistent across all districts and incumebents cannot abuse their positions to campaign.

Provide better support to candidates to level the playing field.

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 10h

Thanks

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 11h

She doesn't even have goof luck...

Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 11h

Yes, wasn't going to but there were only two nominations for five slots the day before noms closed.

Ended up with seven contenders for the five slots...either way think we will have a good board...

Just really hoping we bin our mayor...

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 11h

If nothing else, it shows us who they are so we can do what we can to boycott their business interests - those that haven't been fatally mauled by cycle lanes...

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 11h

When you're holding out for a hero - and all you have is Ray...

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 11h

I think they pretty much hate everyone who isn't Ray Chung...

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 13h

#BitterWellington just being themselves...

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Simon O'Neill @sjponeill.bsky.social · 13h

Temu Lex Luthor