Ian McLean Green candidate for Tauranga

R. Shaw of Welcome Bay writes in The Weekend Sun (August 26) '...The Greens...had they actually been doing anything newsworthy (which is a rarity around here).”

It is true, R. Shaw, that the actions of political groups are rarely newsworthy. The extraordinary free advertising accorded to the recent Boobs on Bikes event is evidence that stunts are needed to attract the attention of our media and responsible political groups are rarely involved in stunts.

But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence; so I take this opportunity to review for you some of the actions of your local branch of the Green Party during 2011.

For this election, the Greens are campaigning on three broad fronts; a sustainable economy, bringing children out of poverty and clean rivers. Please keep an eye on this column, because I will write about the Green Party position on each of these issues during the next few weeks.

The Greens believe strongly in the notion of resilient communities. Such communities have the strength to resist externally imposed forces, such as energy costs, a loss of water quality or difficulties with food supply. You live in Welcome Bay, where your local Greens; helped to write and are now helping to implement, the Welcome Bay Community Plan; are supporting the establishment of the Welcome Bay community gardens; and represent the Transition Towns movement on the Welcome Bay Community Forum – a group whose aim is to ensure communication amongst the many support organisations active in your community.

More generally, your local Greens; have been running a series of public forums drawing attention to issues of significance for this election; have organised the collection and transportation of local produce to Christchurch after the February earthquake; are maintaining an active watching brief on the economically disastrous issue of Psa on kiwifruit; are involved in the activities of the Tauranga Environment Centre, which supports environmental initiatives throughout the region; sit on an advisory group to Tauranga Council on the use of agrichemicals in your environment with the aim of promoting responsible use; worked hard to save the Sydenham Botanical Reserve in Brookfield; regularly make submissions on planning documents that are essential for environmental protection and affect how our communities are organised – for example, regional planning statement, 10-year, annual and district plans; and there is more.

If you joined or attended any of these initiatives – be assured that your support and involvement would be very welcome – you would be unlikely to learn that some of the people sitting there with you were Green Party activists. I see no evidence of political representation when I work with community-based groups, but that does not mean the other parties are not there. Political agendas are not the point; community objectives are.

The media occasionally reports on community initiatives, but the individuals involved are unlikely to be identified as 'Green Party activist” or some such. They are just people who care about the world that you live in and that your mokopuna will inherit.

I further note that we are all volunteers, with no budget whatsoever for supporting our work in the community.

R. Shaw; thank you for prompting me to make this list. I say a resounding thank you to all people, whatever their political persuasion, who are the unsung heroes who help to shape your community. You may not be aware of their efforts, but you reap the benefits.