Waiheke Radio two minute for Local Board

I’m Andy Spence.
I came to Waiheke because I fell in love with this island community.
Most of you know me as the Whakanewha Park ranger but I'm also involved with environmental groups, sports, the arts, the choral society and the theatre. I have an honours degree in Zoology and taught science for several years and spent 5 years on conservation planning with DoC.
So I've got a practical and scientific approach to planning, and I understand how to work with our environment to make it sustainable.
I stand for putting decision making back in your hands after all you're the ones who will be affected. This is genuine democracy. Our island has been pushed and pulled in directions we don’t like by those who don’t live here and we'd begun to believe that this situation was all we could expect.
Well I want to change that - and most of my fellow candidates feel the same way. By voting for those of us who from day one will establish a strong voice for this island; you’ll be taking the first step to a strong and self reliant community.
Imagine how it will feel to be in charge of our own destinies. Imagine how secure we’ll feel when we know that the future is firmly in our own hands, to resolve our issues in our own way, in our own time.
We have already shown how well our ideas and initiatives can work. Waiheke is becoming famous for it's determination to avoid the pitfalls of quick fix solutions and bad policies imposed from afar. I see a time when communities all over the world look to us for inspiration in sustainable development as they too struggle to remain viable in a changing world.
This island is blessed with a vast range of brilliant people offering brilliant ideas and the board will be calling on them for expert advice rather than off island consultants. Let's secure a future in which our ideas get a chance to be properly heard, and better still, implemented.
I'm a good listener and I encourage participation. I have patience and an appreciation of diversity - working with nature requires great patience and forward planning. This Board needs someone that invites interaction and understands possibilities. I have demonstrated these qualities over many years. I want to be on this Board.