Ian | Ōtara
“I guess the last challenge was the election. The problem was not having enough space, or enough information, during the general elections.
It would be nice in the future, you know, for it to be more promoted to our people, as I know a lot of people in Ōtara who want to be involved, but there’s not enough car park spaces, or information as to where to vote. Just those simple things were the last challenges I faced.
The library became a polling booth for early and special votes, which is awesome. It was awesome to see more opportunities for Ōtara residents to vote. We normally don’t have a great turn-out, so having that opportunity for our residents was certainly a good idea. I just think the time didn’t allow for our people to come in and cast their early votes, because even on the Friday before the election day the line was right out the door and into this quad area.
I did talk with the manager of this area about how we can improve in the future, but I felt at that time we could have picked up a whole lot more votes for this area. I think the stats say that there were close to 2000 votes that came through Ōtara.
These are the people running our country, so they make decisions based on what the majority feel about the country. It’s their livelihoods. As you know, house prices are quite high, and there’s a lot of homeless, especially in a place Ōtara where we’re a low decile in terms of education and everything. I mean, we’re not using that as an excuse, but I’m just saying we do care about that community, in that sense. So I guess making those decisions at the top will trickle down eventually to our community, and if it doesn’t suit our community, then we get left out.
I mean I’ve always known that the Government have the power to change things, but just as a younger person I always thought it’s pointless; my vote. I’m sure my vote’s not going to matter anyway. I’ve seen Labour Party coming back into the picture and it’s kind of excited everyone to get out there and vote, just for the sake of voting, but I’ve also looked at policies that I know could benefit our community, and hence it became a topic that was quite dear to me. I thought, what can we do to make it easier for our community to come in and vote? I kind of gave some of those ideas back to the manager, regional manager of this area, and I’m hopeful that things by the next election can be implemented.
I was born and raised in Ōtara. I just stay across the road, so you know; it makes work in my back yard. I get to live and play in my own community. I’ve only been at the library for two years, but I’m loving every bit of it. As a kid I used to come to the library and use the library services. We used to play around here and go off to the pools, come back down to the town centre, grab $5 chips, and that was our day in the school holiday break.
What is dear to me is my family, obviously. I do love everything to do with the community. So anything that the community have to offer I’m there pretty much. Long before I started serving in the local library, I was serving in other areas of the community. You know, it’s quite a priceless job to do, because to see the smile on the faces that you’ve served your community… it means a lot to me.”
