Hamish Bidwell: Lack of candidates a worrying trend

Hamish Bidwell wonders how many people had ever heard of Sam Uffindell, Gaurav Sharma (pictured) and Duncan Webb until a few days ago. Photo / NZME

OPINION:
It's been nice to peer behind the curtain.

Most of us don't get a chance to do that.

No, we tend to be trusting types. People who assume that those in positions of power are cut from a different cloth.

Better, more admirable, less human than we are. Capable of conducting themselves in a fashion that we can't.

I'm not sure whether the past week has been a good one for politics. Or for democracy, given how few folk have stood for local body election in Hawke's Bay.

But at least it's been instructive and perhaps enlightened voters to the fact that not everyone who holds public office has lived a life of blameless excellence.

I wonder how many people had ever heard of Sam Uffindell, Gaurav Sharma and Duncan Webb until a few days ago. Anna Lorck is a known quantity here, but not nationally.

Each has been in the news, though, for one reason or another. All it does in the end is create a greater distrust and dislike for politics and politicians.

And that's the worry here, for me.

Now, I know plenty of good people. Folk who would be assets to society in either local body or national politics.

People with ideas and stamina and contacts who would be outstanding advocates for their wards and cities and electorates. People who, without wanting to sound too corny, could help make life better for all of us.

But who needs the scrutiny? Who needs an ex-partner or flatmate or teammate popping their head up?

Hamish Bidwell. Photo/ Warren Buckland

Who needs the political party machine dictating their thoughts and actions?

When we cannot find sufficient candidates to hold elections, then something's gone badly wrong and revelations of the sort we saw over the past week don't help.

Those seeking to reveal what's there - and to score some political point off someone else - actually just damage the whole apparatus. They discredit politics and they diminish the standing of all involved in it.

Little wonder that worthy folk would rather not be involved.