PUNEET OF PONSONBY

Puneet and his son at a climate march

PUNEET DHALL OF PONSONBY

I am very proud to be asked by editor Martin Leach to become a columnist for Ponsonby News. I will be focusing on food, wines, and current affairs.

But first let me introduce myself. I am Puneet Dhall, an Aucklander of Indian origin, Punjabi and Sikh. I was born in Hayes, London, in the shadow of Heathrow airport. My father was a teacher and then a race relations officer and my mother was a worker at Heathrow making food for the planes.

My mum would finish late shift at 10pm and my dad and I used to pick her up from the airport. I’d watch the planes coming in, and then the car door would open, my mum’s face beaming with a bag of hot chips from the airport canteen. I’d chomp the best chips I’ve ever had in the back of the car.

I studied advanced engineering at Cambridge University. I travelled the world and I fell in love with wine. I moved to Auckland in 2007 then fell in love with Shana, a local girl living in Ponsonby who was a DJ at KFM. Now we have two children, Taj and Onyx and have lived in Ponsonby, St Marys Bay and now in Westmere, where we have two chooks - Rosie and Red.

Having travelled to various corners of the world, I became enamoured with viticulture and the romance of fine wines. So much so that I started a wine distribution company in 2008 called ‘Dhall and Nash’ on College Hill. We source the finest wines and craft beverages from New Zealand and around the world.

I am involved in many charities and movements because I believe that democracy is about grassroots engagement. I have mentored children of prisoners, I save trees, trams, trains, I biked over Auckland Bridge, I campaign with 350 for a fossil free future, I stand with the friends of Leys, the friends of The St James, those who want to protect Dove Myer Robinson Park, those in the city centre ‘doing it hard’ during CRL construction, those in the Grey Lynn community trying to save their amazing parade, those who seek to live in affordable housing, those seeking to prohibit residential helicopter use, those who want to make our city less congested, safer and vibrant.

As far back as the 18th Century, the Scottish philosopher David Hume, wrote in his essay, The first principles of government - ‘Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few’.

There are 58,735 voices in Waitematā, the district within which Ponsonby belongs. Every single one counts, and it is by hearing them and counting them that we make decisions.

In my activism and my involvement in numerous advocacy groups, I have seen local voices simply rolled over by certain salaried bureaucrats and highly intelligent ‘guns for hire’ who have attempted to subvert the democratic method in the name of ‘getting things done the way they think is best’.

These include the removal of mature trees at Western Springs Park, the site selection for The Erebus Memorial at Doves Myer Robinson Park, the closure without any plans for rehabilitating The St James Theatre in our city centre, the removal of the Auckland dockline tram and its associated vision to connect Britomart to Wynyard with a direct shoreline public transport mode.

I want to see local decisions back in the hands of local people. I myself am not a politician; I love my family, my business and being an engaged citizen, but from my understanding, the golden rule of democracy, thought up by Plato himself 2000 years ago with a glint in his eye as he wrote his ‘Republic’ - is that the majority rules…

Citizens should constantly coalesce and debate and persuade each other of their passions and arguments, not just toddle up to the polling booth once every three years and then spend the rest of the term being hoodwinked by ivory towered officers. And so I now feel compelled to raise my voice against this organised disempowerment of ordinary citizens.

Our elected officials have a moral obligation to insert your courageous voices back into the debate and at the heart of local decision making - not the periphery. If we cannot achieve this, then we may well find that the children’s fable of The Lorax may well become Auckland’s reality. (PUNEET DHALL)  PN