This does not look like a harmless community event. It looks like election-year image management.
And what is it called?
Think Like a Fish.
A forum framed around rising polarisation, noisy debate, trust, shared survival, ancient knowledge, and “busting a few myths.” The event page also tags it with words like community, conversation, leadership, trust, dialogue, democracy and civic.
That is the sales pitch.
Here is the political reality.
This reads as election-year political positioning.
Old Reynella is not some random stop on the map.
It is a politically sensitive location. Taking a privately branded trust-and-dialogue event into Old Reynella in an election year does not look neutral. It looks targeted — an attempt to soften the ground where the politics are already difficult.
The split-screen is obvious.
Lean on the title.
Lean on the profile.
Lean on the reach.
Lean on the authority.
Then call it private.
It is also a $10 ticketed event: a paid, privately branded forum in an election year, promoted through public channels while still trying to sit under the cover of “private citizen.”
That line gets even thinner when councillors start promoting it too.
Once elected members start promoting Moira Were’s privately branded forum through their own councillor platforms, the pretence starts to crack.
What remains is a profile-building exercise wrapped in the language of trust, dialogue and the common good.
Call it a forum.
Call it a conversation.
But people know a campaign vehicle when they see one.
Old Reynella.
A privately branded forum series.
Coffee catchups with the Mayor.
Big-group promotion.
Councillor-page amplification.
A $10 ticket.
An election year.
That is not just “community conversation.”
That is campaign politics in costume.
