Social Credit candidate for Northland Brad Flutey wants the Reserve Bank to print money and pay for New Zealand's debt.
Photo / Tania Whyte
Social Credit candidate for Northland Brad Flutey wants the Reserve Bank to print money and pay for New Zealand's debt.
Photo / Tania Whyte
The Northern Advocate and NZME Northland digital and radio platforms, are giving you, the voters, a chance to hear why the candidates standing deserve your vote on October 17.
Northern Advocate reporter Imran Ali and The Hits Northland day announcer Charmaine Soljak have interviewed candidates from the three Northland electorates – Whangārei, Northland and Te Tai Tokerau.
We caught them on video, too, so head to thenorthernadvocate.co.nz and thehits.co.nz to read about the candidates, listen to and watch what they have to say.
Over the next two weeks, The Hits Northland, The Northern Advocate, and the Northland Age will introduce you to the candidates, so you can read, watch and hear about what they've had to say, and be well informed before you cast your vote.
Today we look at the first three candidates in the Northland electorate, with the rest of the candidates from the electorate appearing tomorrow and on Saturday.
Moving the Ports of Auckland to Northport may bring with it social problems such as gangs, guns, and methamphetamine in the absence of a suitable plan.
That's the view of Social Credit candidate for Northland Brad Flutey who supports the move but is questioning whether there is a plan to deal with the potential bad factors associated with the shift.
To listen to the Hits host Charmaine Soljak's interview clink here
"I also know the issues that Tauranga is going through with gangs, guns, and meth and if we don't have a plan to make sure those things aren't going to come flooding through a port where the mass increase of resources and materials are coming through, then we are only going to expedite the existing problems that we have in Northland.
"So it's a juggling act. Have we got a proper plan to deal with the bad that comes in and make sure there's more good that comes in, I am not so sure."
The way to tackling meth, he said, was to stop people from buying pseudoephedrine and ephedrine off pharmacy shelves so they were unable to manufacture the drug.
"If we can stop the importing of it, that helps. If we can help fund through also monetary reform and other clever tax angles, helping people heal their traumas so they don't have to seek something to self medicate, then we can hit them at supply, consumer, and distribution," he said.
Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine can only be prescribed by medical practitioners registered with the Medical Council of New Zealand under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003.
That restriction came into effect on September 8, 2011.
Flutey said he has not seen a strong, operational plan to deal with issues facing Northlanders such as depression, meth, and those struggling financially.
Brad Flutey is concerned Ports of Auckland's move to Northport could being with it social problems into this region.
Photo / Tania Whyte
The country, he said, needed to pursue monetary reforms in that the Reserve Bank should print money to pay for our debt instead of borrowing from private banks on interest and losing $5 billion a year offshore.
"We all know that money is created out of thin air. The statement that we don't have a magic money tree is not true any more. We've always had a magic money tree. It's just that are we not selecting the politicians that are responsible enough to use it responsibly."
Flutey is against the amalgamation of territorial authorities in Northland, saying people needed to get their political power back so they knew who they were choosing as their elected representatives in local councils.
He is also against the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the environment.
"We've been using regenerative agriculture and regenerative horticulture now for quite a while and we've been having great success and in some areas we've been producing three times the amount while living with symbiosis with our environment.
"This country already produces enough food for 40 million and there's only five million people that live here. For us to feel like we're pressured into something that we don't fully understand yet doesn't make any sense to me, especially when there's already something that's already better."
"We don't need GMOs to produce more, we can produce far more just by understanding horticulture and its variety levels from soil science to structures, to automation."
The greatest influence in his life has been his partner who he said consistently encouraged him to be a better man.
