If rates capping goes ahead as it stands, it will hurt the very people who are already doing it tough.

I have been thinking a lot about the government’s recent announcement on rates capping, and I need to be honest: it riles me. If this proposal goes ahead as it stands, it will hurt the very people who are already doing it tough.

Here’s the simple truth. If councils cannot raise enough money through rates, they will have to charge more for everything else. That means rubbish bags cost more when a wheelie bin is not an option. It means kids might miss out on learning to swim because they cannot afford pool fees. It means libraries become harder to access, so a young person may never meet the works of Patricia Grace or discover the stories that shape our community. And it means sports fields, the same ones that produced legends like Jerry Collins, Don Tricker, and Ken Gray, become out of reach for the next generation of players.

The impact is not on landlords. It lands squarely on whānau with the least to spare. This is exactly the opposite of what a fair solution should look like.

I understand that times are hard. Everyone is feeling the pinch. But the government could have handled this differently. They could have looked at sharing revenue more fairly. They could have given councils better tools to manage rising costs. They could have considered where costs are really coming from, like infrastructure that is now far more expensive to build and maintain. Instead, we have a solution that feels half-baked and dismissive.

And then there is the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. He can say what he likes about helping households, but the reality is very different. The people who will suffer most are not the wealthy; they are the whānau already under pressure. Pretending this helps when it does the opposite shows a serious lack of leadership.

Some might say, I do not go to the pool or the library. I have a wheelie bin, not a rubbish bag. Why should I pay for others? That attitude misses how a community works. We all rely on the same roads, parks, emergency services, libraries, pools, and sports fields. Those services do not appear by themselves. They are paid for together, and they keep Porirua safe, healthy, and thriving.

Communities only work when we care about more than our own front gate. We support each other when we share costs and look out for those who need it most. That is the lesson we should carry forward in every council decision.

The government has a choice. And at next year's election, so do we. I will continue to speak up for whānau, for kids, for the underdog. And I hope everyone reading this will take a moment to think about what fair really looks like in Porirua.