Waikato Times letter of the week #72

From the edition of Friday 23 September. As always, spelling, punctuation (in this case especially, hyphens and the lack thereof), grammar and logic are exactly as printed in the Waikato Times. The writer is no relation; the “priggish” Tim Macindoe he describes does not resemble the one I lunch with regularly at the Wintec Press Club. That Tim Macindoe, National’s chief whip, is a hoot.

Café debate

West Ward city council and DHB incumbent candidate Martin Gallagher must cease tacitly endorsing his electoral successor, National MP for Hamilton West, Tim Macindoe. With his predecessor’s endorsement ensuring his position becomes virtually un-opposable, Macindoe is guaranteed a return to this once marginal seat, making next year’s general election race here undemocratic; certainly unviable for a serious Opposition contender.   

Tackling a generic question put to candidates at the National MP’s Agora Café debate (September 9), Gallagher defended his own multiplicity of elected roles, linking extra effective benefits to taking on greater responsibilities. Throughout the debate, Gallagher was unwilling to provide the required brief answers, constantly having to be cut short by mediator and host Tim Macindoe.

The priggish Tim Macindoe proved an unreliable debate adjudicator, unwilling to pull former Waikato Times reporter Geoff Taylor up for an unfortunate anecdote regarding his two teenage daughters commanding excessive water for showering, meant to illustrate higher demands on rural tank water capacity. Taylor’s unchallenged inferences are all the more concerning considering Macindoe’s chief political adversary over recent general elections, Labour list MP Sue Moroney, has herself been a former spokeswoman on women’s affairs.

Roger Stratford

Hamilton