Wellington Central Grey Power June Newsletter
From President Colleen
Winter doesn’t stop your Committee – they have been active on your behalf.
Communication on your behalf
You may have seen recently our Association has had two letters to the Editor of The Post – one about bus stops and the second about retirement villages. Many older people see themselves as the forgotten generation, so it is encouraging that The Post has recently run articles about issues regarding older people.
New Constitution for Wellington Central Grey Power Incorporated
Our June AGM passed the new constitution for registration. We have now received our Certificate of Incorporation. The number of your Association is 334987 should you wish to check us out. I thank all of those who have been involved in the preparation of the document, which is now available on the Association’s website https://greypowerwellington.org.nz/
Grey Power Federation Board and Zone 4
The Federation Board meets face-to-face in February, May, August and November. It meets by zoom in the other months. Zone 4 (the triangle New Plymouth to Wairoa to Wellington) meets in Palmerston North in February, May, August and November. Wellington Central is entitled to two delegates at that meeting. I attend as Federation Board member and we often have observers attend with us.
At present 69 Associations are operational and the national membership is low. We encourage those members who have not renewed their subscription to do so. The subscription of $15 a year is as low as we can make it, and $7.50 of that is capitation to the Federation. Please encourage your friends and neighbours to join (no age limit!). Only current Grey Power members can take advantage of the Grey Power Electricity discount.
Our editor below has a report on the recent Federation AGM where a new logo was unveiled so keep an eye out for it. The Association was represented at the AGM by Vice-President David Cuthbert and Alastair Duncan. We were joined by three observers, Peter Hooper, Alan Wright and Stefan Cook.
The Federation has now employed Johnathan Dietz as our Co-ordinator at the Federation office in Pukekohe. Janice Harding who has worked in the office for 25 years leaves in July and in recognition of her support for our Association we have made a contribution to her farewell gift.
Grey Power Magazine
With the magazine now largely online, there are print copies still available at an additional $10. If you paid the $10 fee to have the magazine delivered to you and haven’t received a copy please email so we can get a copy to you. Email membership@greypowerwellington.org.nz.
Grey Power Federation website and Facebook
The Grey Power website www.greypower.co.nz is our tool to keep the membership up to date with activities. To access the member’s section of the website, the link is at the bottom of the home page. You will need your Grey Power membership number as your password to gain entry to that page. That is where you can find all the important Grey Power documents – Constitution, by laws etc.
The Federation also has a Facebook page; the link is https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=greypowernz
How do you do? 😊
Our committee members haven’t had the opportunity to meet many of you. We always have a small number of members at our Wellington local AGM. While we lost the room we once used for meetings at the central library we may be able to access another in Upper Willis for future events. For our public meetings we have been using the Taraura Tramping Club rooms in Mt Victoria which has worked well.
If you’re keen to be more involved, please get in touch with me at president@greypowerwellington.org.nz
I hope you are keeping warm this winter
Colleen Singleton
President
Federation AGM. Winston performs and decisions are made – here’s what you missed!
Newsletter editor Alastair Duncan reports:
Grey Power Treasurer Lew Findlay doesn’t mince words. Grey Power membership has dropped from 35 thousand to just 25 thousand since the last AGM. Only a commercial deal with Grey Power Electricity keeps us afloat.
It’s June 2025, the Grey Power Federation Annual General Meeting and delegates, assembled at the Brentwood Hotel in Wellington, open with a real blast from the past. Winston Peters, just back from another overseas assignment, is the keynote speaker. He tells the meeting we are “under attack”. It’s classic Winston.
Before his arrival, President Gayle warns the meeting not to be “too political”. But not Winston. From the first, Winston tells us he has thrown away his prepared notes and is in full flight. Only he can protect National Superannuation and he condemns the ‘neo-liberal experiment” as the problem. (Not that he pauses to explain why he is in Coalition with the ACT and National Party.)
Young people know “nothing about hardship” and the Greens are a “bunch of Marxists”. In Wellington, “the Council” is to blame for almost everything and road cones are guilty as charged.
Asked about the crisis in aged care residential and home support staffing, he ducks responding to my question about why his party supported the recent Pay Equity cuts and explains that the solution is to be found in “Singapore” and “immigration”. We need to make it harder for Asian carers to secure long-term residency. It’s a case of get them in, use them and send the home.
Before he leaves Winston unveils the new Grey Power logo. Beaming, he clearly relishes the moment, but with no press in attendance Winston has thoughtfully brought along not one but three full time ‘comms’ staff to video the moment. They are all well under 40.
It’s a good show but does it stick? Before Winston arrived President Gayle asked delegates to stand. Most do, but on his departure less than a quarter of the delegates stand for second time.
Constitution up for grabs
Gayle presents her strategic plan. It’s strong on headlines but low on KPIs and without any costings or measurable details. Most debate focuses on the proposed constitutional change to move from ‘zone/regional’ board members to a lesser number of “at large”. The problem says Gayle is the current model is not “fit to meet modern needs of a business”.
Others, including Wellington Central stress that Grey Power is not a ‘business’ but a movement of 69 independent associations. If Grey Power were a ‘business’, then based on the Treasurers report the entire board would presumably resign. They don’t.
Napier asks why the plan doesn’t mention activism and lobbying. Gail replies that is ‘business as usual.’
In the end the call for ‘change’ is seductive and the vote to progress “the plan” along with the constitutional goes through, but only just meeting the 75% threshold for constitutional change. It’s but a first step. The actual constitutional vote change won’t be until the 2026 AGM by which the current board, (with the current office holders re-elected) will come under further scrutiny to see just what ‘business as usual’ has delivered.
(See the current GP magazine on line for more on the differing views on the proposal.)
Capitation capitulation
Then it’s time to talk money. A motion surfaces to raise the capitation. Treasurer Lew has set the scene but given his earlier report, it’s extra-ordinary that a proposal to lift the ‘capitation from $7.50 to $10.00 is voted down 52 to 34. Those against talk of cost-of-living pressures and affordability. Apparently, we want change but don’t want to pay for it.
Remits come and go with a lot of time spent on differing interpretation of how motions of closure can and should be put and what a ‘right of reply’ means. At times it’s better than the Parliamentary debating chamber – even without a haka. The standing orders which should govern the process are set out in the papers, but the 75% threshold to terminate debate gets lost on more than one occasion and allow the chair to rule, without challenge if remarks are deemed “irrelevant” or involve ‘tedious repetition”. Gayle looks exhausted.
Resignation of Aged Care Commissioner
The next day the popular key note speaker Aged Care Commissioner Carolyn Cooper used her presentation to advise that earlier in the morning she had tendered her resignation to Seniors Minister Casey Costello.
Carolyn has been a good friend to Grey Power, speaking to many Association groups. The audience were both surprised at the news and disappointed at her going. She had talents way beyond her job description. We wish her well in her next endeavours.
Cooper confirmed she was not consulted on the Pay Equity changes. With pay equity claims forcibly shut down, and no sign of a serious look at staffing levels in aged care facilities, the Commission, like so many other public services, appear to be struggling to deliver.
Proxy or Poxy?
Proxy voting arouses the most passion after those charged with updating the constitution to reflect changes required by the Incorporated Societies Act omitted what to do about proxies. Passions run high. Not everyone can afford to come to Wellington. What about Associations with no money? Should we only have proxies for elections?
It’s a sign that delegates do care, but as the motions and amendments roll up and down the video screens many seem to lose interest.
By day three the rain has set in and a bid by Southland delegates to lure next years’ AGM to Invercargill falls at the first post. Airfares and distance scare people off the sunny south.
Like any such meeting the real work seems to occur during adjournments for tea and coffee – and bikkies. Most seem to have enjoyed themselves and the turnout of Associations was higher than last year. We decide to do it all again in Wellington in 2026.
Interestingly, Grey Power is not the only ones at the Brentwood. In the room next door, the Nurses Organisation is in pay talks with Te Whatu Ora. They make little progress.
Getting down to business.
Committee member David Cuthbert reports on the voting pattern at the Federation AGM.
At the recent GPNZF AGM there were 14 remits for consideration, the Board put forward seven. In the main these dealt with correcting errors arising from the rush job done at the previous AGM when a new constitution, (again drafted in haste) was considered. Most were minor in nature except for that dealing with Proxy votes (absence by oversight) which after debate was passed by 53 votes to 21, with three abstentions
There were three remits from Associations, one dealing with fees and levies, the other dealing with Federation support to members no longer supported by an association, both of which passed. The third sought that KiwiSaver be made compulsory with a 6% deduction from nett earnings, which was withdrawn.
Then there were three new Policy remits, which were Zone endorsed – one dealing with the removal of surcharges on cash payments, another seeking that the first $25,000 of personal income be tax free, both of which passed. The third sought that payment of any benefit be free of taxation, and this was lost.
Concluding the remit consideration session, an Association supported the Aged Care Association in their advocacy for better funding and access for seniors needing home and residential care, and this was carried.
Footnote:
Wellington Central delegates and observers caucused and voted ‘against’ the constitutional changes, and “for” the capitation rise and proxy voting.
Money, money, money!
If the Federation’s finances are under pressure the good news is the Wellington Central Association is doing much better. The June accounts show we are in the black with an excess of income over expenditure of $247 plus the continued surety of $20 thousand in term deposits.
Special thanks to our Treasurer Bruce McLachlan.
PS, a reminder Wellington Central is NOT the place to send your Grey Power Electricity payments – a few come in every month and have to be returned.
Senior Housing. Is it fair?
Committee member Peter Hooper asks whether housing for some seniors is unfair, even when the State is playing a key role of what is on offer.
Parity in terms of income is not the only area in life where that word is at centre. All about fairness, social housing can have a similar feel.
There has been the birth of a new model for social housing that comes under the heading of Community Housing Providers. In Wellington we have Te Toi Mahana and its arrival comes via the move by the Housing section of the Wellington City Council to move away from being hands on in the social housing area and put up a Community Housing Provider (CHP) to manage this area, while retaining ownership of the houses and flats themselves. One notes these assets were funded by NZ citizens for the dedicated purpose of giving aid to those considered deserving of help and support.
This new CHP model has a feature which is attractive to many in that the rental cost for a person entering the new housing provider model has access to IRRS and their contribution to rent is based on their income. The level is set at 25% of their income.
If this person is 65 or older and their sole income is NZ Super then their rent is 25% of what that income offers.
The parity issue arrives when one notes those who have been tenants of the Housing section of the Wellington City Council, and are brought into the CHP but are not treated the same as a new arrival. They don’t have the CHP setting when it comes to rent payment levels. They are required to pay a percentage of the market rent for the area they are living in. Their rent payment compared to a new arrival at any of the sites or complexes managed by Te Toi Mahana is considerably higher, often twice as expensive or more.
The long-term tenants in this situation may find themselves in the same building, at the same site, in a dwelling exactly the same as their new neighbour, but the lack of parity issue is powerful. One can appreciate the tenant experiences this lack of parity as anything but fair.
The two models for calculating rent, one being a percentage of income (found in State housing formulae for years); the other a percentage of rent paid for a comparable dwelling where one lives (let’s say you live in Newtown). In the past a person in a Wellington City Council flat and a person in a State Housing complex would often be paying very similar rents. What has changed is the cost of housing and the cost of living, and the change has had a huge impact.
Recently the observation has been made that some women feel the promise for a fair deal and parity with men regarding income in comparable settings has ceased to be a reliable commitment in the NZ workplace. Now it seems for housing there are people, many seniors, where that element of parity/fairness seems to be taken away as well, the promise of a fairer future seems beyond one’s reach.
The advice to both groups, some women and some older people living in housing provided by a State configured living formulae, is to share their narratives with the conviction groups like Grey Power that are genuinely concerned for situations of social failure to provide parity, be it in the workplace or in the provision of housing, and that this situation deserves our attention.
Mayoral race. Ray of sunshine or very Little?
With Ray Chung Independent Together (IT) seemingly buying up every billboard in town, Labour Party canvassers are footslogging for their hopeful candidate Andrew Little.
To date, Labour seems to be focussing on just the mayoral race, but no sign yet of a wider campaign, while IT, with its yellow and black signage reminiscent of the ACT party, seems to have a full ticket approach.
Turns out that everyone supports better pipes and doesn’t want to close libraries or sports grounds so, at a recent community meeting in Brooklyn, the newsletter Editor asked Ray just how he was going to achieve a zero percent rates increase and another audience member asked about costings. We left more confused than informed.
As Ray tells it his “independent together” team can’t do the costings until the take power! He did add that with a 17% staff turnover the act of not replacing staff as they leave was a good start and that Council should just ‘stop’ doing jobs that could be done by others. That apparently includes social housing – of which Wellington has had a proud record. For now!
Candidate nominations for all Wellington City Council positions are open and close on 1 August.
WANTED: Your hospital experiences after a fall.
Vera Sullivan, a doctorate student at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University is conducting a research project on the experiences of seniors returning home from hospital after a fall and any subsequent experience of community support during recovery.
If you can help please contact Vera at vera.sullivan@vuw.ac.nz