Every election is full of them. We can add “Misinformation” to the list, which has come to mean everything the other side does. There is a saying from the World War II “the flak is thickest when you are over the target”, because the anti-aircraft fire at bombers got worse the closer they were to the enemy.
Today, this means that the lies and slurs are thrown at people who get near the truth. Opposition to Better Hamilton’s work is coming out thick and fast with dubious claims and cherry-picked data, so this gives us real confidence that we are hitting the mark on council issues.
This is because Better Hamilton has a team of experts fact-checking Council figures supported by wider research. This is not an easy process as HCC has numerous different sets of figures that are used - the previous year’s accounts, next year’s projections, and figures from the Long Term Plan. You need patience and a degree in accounting to even begin to make sense of these. Thankfully we possess quite a few amongst our volunteers. Even so, when results from Official Information requests have been sent to us from the Hamilton City Council and have subsequently proven to be wrong, when this is discovered, Better Hamilton has made the corrections.
We are also independent, so when we identify any councillor being liberal with ‘facts’, we will dig into it further to support the truth.
Some Hamilton City Councillors are spreading rumours that Andrew Bydder has a poor attendance record at council meetings. We have checked and double-checked. Attendance is recorded on the official minutes, video records of every council and committee meeting are accessible on the council website, and council supplies attendance data that is published every three months. That is a triple check! But do not take our word for it, look into it for yourselves. We would also suggest that you examine those same records and see who actually has poor attendance. You can then cross check with what they have been saying about others…
As confirmed by Council information, Councillors Bydder, Pike, and Donovan never missed acouncil meeting in 2024. Bydder has the lowest absentee record for committee meetings, at just 1%, as published by the Waikato Times, Are you being served? Councillor meeting attendance data raises questions, four times better than the second lowest.
This then begs the question of why the alternative information? Why would anyone attack someone who is actively working hard on achieving a better Hamilton? I can only hope that this is not a cynical diversion tactic from people who just want to keep spending your money….
Raymond Mudford
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