Carter for Carterton mayor

BY WALT DICKSON

Interest in the Carterton mayoralty is hotting up with several people declaring they will be gunning for the job.

Among them is deputy mayor Ruth Carter who believes she has served her apprenticeship well and is ready to make the step up.

Incumbent Gary McPhee has said he won't be seeking a third term at the October local body elections.

Former New Zealand First MP Ron Mark, a resident of Carterton, declared his intention to contest the mayoralty last year. Also looking to have a tilt at the job is long-serving councillor Bill Knowles.

Wairarapa News understands there are several other potential candidates, among them another sitting councillor, ensuring that there will be no shortage of options available to voters come election time.

On a national level one potential mayor who can expect to grab plenty of attention is Ruth Carter.

The five-term councillor is paraplegic. While such a disability may generate prejudice in some electorates, Carterton has a record, at least in recent decades, of picking its leaders on their merits: Georgina Beyer became the first trans-sexual mayor when she was elected in 1995; Gary McPhee, whose hands-on style has at times raised eyebrows, speaks openly about being bipolar.

But Mrs Carter insists her disability should not be a factor  for her or against her  when Cartertonians go to the polls latter this year.

"If you were to ask me who I am I would say I am a Christian, a wife, a mother, a friend  I'm not a paraplegic, it's just a part of who I am," says Carter.

Shaking off the stigma is an ongoing battle for people with disabilities, she says.

She was paralysed 28 years ago.

"I had a virus, instead of it turning into the flu it crossed into the motor nerves in my legs and killed them overnight." The extremely rare condition is called transverse myelitis.

At the time she and husband Bill were running a stud jersey farm and working around the clock.

"But we had to be positive: I had a son, a farm and I couldn't sit there and feel sorry for myself because there were things to do, a life to live and you just have to get out there and do it." Through it all Carter says the hardest part has been the fight "to just be me" when all people see is the disability.

Nearly three decades on, Carter's paraplegia has done little to hold her back. She and Bill still live on the farm, they have two children, both lead busy lives and are active in the community.

Carter is a member of: Wairarapa DHB Disability Support Advisory Committee, Public Trustee PHO, chair Violence Intervention Programme DHB, representative of Palliative Care Community Reference Group Council and also Healthy Lifestyles Oversight Group.

"Having those three roles gives you a greater knowledge of the whole community, not only Carterton but the Wairarapa."

- Wairarapa News