Waipa District Council HQ
Sally Whitaker believes the requirement needing to hold a vaccine pass to enter public facilities during Covid times caused significant physical and emotional trauma to a wide range of Waipā ratepayers.
Te Awamutu Community Board member Sally Whitaker is aligned with the Voices for Freedom movement.
She wants that acknowledged, but failed to get backing for a motion from Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board members last week.
Whitaker was elected to the board in 2022 after sharing disillusionment with central government’s reach into local government matters and is not seeking for re-election.
“Public facilities in the Waipā District between December 2, 2021 and April 5, 2022 were only accessible to the public with a pass. This pass did not prove absence of disease but a willingness to comply and consent to the rules,” Whitaker said.
“The measures taken were discriminatory causing significant physical and emotional trauma to a wide range of Waipā ratepayers. Many other councils in New Zealand managed to safely keep public facilities open to all.
“Because decisions around access to public facilities have significant impact on the community, they must in future be treated with more gravity and consideration.”
She hoped for a public acknowledgement of the hardships caused as well as a conversation about stopping the same circumstances repeating, to “learn from the past and collectively grow into the future”.
She wanted the community board to recommend Waipā District Council adopt a policy to never discriminate on medical status again when it came to using public facilities.
The board decided the motion should not proceed in its current form.
“I hear both sides,” board chair Ange Holt said. “I feel for the people that weren’t, couldn’t or didn’t want to be vaccinated.”
On the other side, she said the then chief executive Garry Dyet had to look after his staff.
“However, I really do like the idea of that public conversation about what happens [in the future].”
