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Speaker 1: Bake home on democracy. The abysmal turnout at our local

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Speaker 1: body elections as being officially looked at local government. New

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Speaker 1: Zealand is looking for a bit of feedback about forty

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Speaker 1: percent of us turn out last time, which is dreadful.

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Speaker 1: The Electoral Reform Group member and the Gisburnd mayor of

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Speaker 1: course right his stults is, well, that's very good morning

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Speaker 1: to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: Do you realistically, hand on heart, believe there is something

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Speaker 1: out there that we haven't already thought of that can

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Speaker 1: actually motivate people to turn up.

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Speaker 2: I do think if we take a look at how

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Speaker 2: we vote at the stage we use the postal system.

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Speaker 2: No one us mailboxes anymore. If you think of the

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Speaker 2: general elections, there's a voting day, it is nationally advertised.

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Speaker 2: So maybe if we take a look and make it

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Speaker 2: easier for people to vote, we can get more people involved.

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Speaker 2: But on top of that we also need to make

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Speaker 2: sure people want to be involved in local politics, because

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Speaker 2: at this stage quite a few people say they only

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Speaker 2: interact with their council when they receive their rates. Bull

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Speaker 2: and I challenge that by saying, no, you travel on roat,

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Speaker 2: you drink water, so you should really be invested in

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Speaker 2: having your say, who do you want to make those

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Speaker 2: decisions on your behalf?

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Speaker 1: Couldn't agree more. But that's all theory, isn't otherwise we

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Speaker 1: would be acting. I mean, there's never been a better

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Speaker 1: example at the moment surely around the country of carnage

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Speaker 1: and disaster that would, in theory, motivate people to want

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Speaker 1: to participate, isn't there.

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Speaker 2: I do think after a lot of people received bigger

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Speaker 2: rights bolls this year, they might think next year when

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Speaker 2: it's election time, let's take a good look. Whoever candidates

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Speaker 2: standing in my room, I maybe one to stand do.

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Speaker 2: I think I can do a better job. Because also,

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Speaker 2: if you take a look at what proportion of your

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Speaker 2: salary do you pay over to government taxes, and you

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Speaker 2: think what proportion do you pay to your rates, you

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Speaker 2: are motivated to vote in government elections because it's a

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Speaker 2: huge amount you pay. So maybe if people start thinking

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Speaker 2: a lot of practical things around me are affected by

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Speaker 2: my counsel, let's get involved and see if we can

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Speaker 2: make it better for us in our local spot.

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Speaker 1: As part of the problem though in an understanding candidates

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Speaker 1: understanding policies is it's such a crapshoot. At council level,

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Speaker 1: you don't know what you're going to get. At least nationally,

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Speaker 1: you get a side, you get the left, or you

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Speaker 1: get the right. Well, then councils you can get a

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Speaker 1: bit of everything, and then that may or may not work.

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Speaker 1: And that's the problem.

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Speaker 2: That's one of the issues we identified when we ask

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Speaker 2: people why do you not participate? Lots of people said,

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Speaker 2: I don't know the candidates. I don't know what they're

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Speaker 2: standing for. You know, once elections come around, a few

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Speaker 2: billboards go up, some people advertise on the radio, but

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Speaker 2: you don't really know what people stand for. Because we

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Speaker 2: pride ourselves that local government isn't really tied to political parties,

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Speaker 2: so there might be a win and a lose in there.

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Speaker 2: But that's part of the work to also make sure

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Speaker 2: candidates are advertised in a way that's maybe more consistent

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Speaker 2: across the country.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's see what happens with it. Really appreciate

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Speaker 1: time registers. Here's the Gismond mayor, but also a member

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Speaker 1: of this group looking at the other they're looking at

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Speaker 1: as possibility of four year terms. I'm just wondering, if

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Speaker 1: you're listening to this in Wellington, whether you'd be interested

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Speaker 1: in a good, solid four year term at the moment

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Speaker 1: to given what you're dealing with. For more from the

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