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Speaker 1: New data. Speaking of democracy, on the magnetism of the

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Speaker 1: local body elections, we're going to end up with a

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Speaker 1: couple of hundred at least who will win unopposed. Got

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Speaker 1: two mayors and nobra eighty councilors already in multiple community

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Speaker 1: board's got no candidates at all now registolts as the

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Speaker 1: Gisbane mayor also the local government New Zealand VP and

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Speaker 1: with us morning to you, good morning. I find it

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Speaker 1: so depressing. Don't you find this depressing?

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Speaker 2: It is depressing. But year in Gisbon we've actually got

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Speaker 2: an active race with thirty people standing for thirteen seats,

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Speaker 2: and we've been around the community. We've had about fifteen

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Speaker 2: community in actions with the Chamber of Commerce, Federated Farmers,

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Speaker 2: at the retirement homes. So in some places there are

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Speaker 2: a little bit of interest in local body bolt.

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Speaker 1: Your numbers are as of yesterday at twenty three point

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Speaker 1: nine percent turnout. Three quarters of people can't even be bothered,

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Speaker 1: and that's true.

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Speaker 2: We've seen forty percent of people usually vote in local

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Speaker 2: body elections versus the eighty percent and the general elections,

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Speaker 2: and that trend has been going down, down, down since

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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty nine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, should we if no one stands, should people be

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Speaker 1: elected unopposed? Or is that no longer democracy and we've

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Speaker 1: given up on it and we should just appoint people.

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Speaker 2: I think there are two parts to that. We've barely

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Speaker 2: barely ever had a people standing unopposed here, but I

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Speaker 2: know that one lady in one of our rural wards

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Speaker 2: always were unopposed, and the reason she was unopposed because

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Speaker 2: she did a bloody fantastic job. So there are two

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Speaker 2: sites to that. There might be apathy and people not

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Speaker 2: wanting to stand there, but there are also people doing

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Speaker 2: great jobs.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. That's a fair point. What about because

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Speaker 1: I lived in a ward where that was exactly the case?

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Speaker 1: What about the boards? Now, Glenn, our technical guy, made it,

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Speaker 1: I thought a reasonable point of the people when we

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Speaker 1: say twenty three point nine percent of people have turned

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Speaker 1: out to vote who they voted for in terms of

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Speaker 1: did they just vote for the mayor or do they

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Speaker 1: vote for the community boards as well? And the suggestion

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Speaker 1: would be they're probably mainly voting for the mayor, aren't they.

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Speaker 2: So people, depending where you live, you vote for your mayor.

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Speaker 2: Depending on what ward you live, you would vote either

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Speaker 2: the general ward or the Maori ward and then if

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Speaker 2: they are community built as well, that would be on

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Speaker 2: your voting papers.

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Speaker 1: As well, so I know now they actually vote. I

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Speaker 1: mean I don't know any of these people. I've never

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Speaker 1: heard of them. I don't know. So therefore I go, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. There's people are not going to vote

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Speaker 1: for them mainly end up voting for the mayor.

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Speaker 2: So can I flip that over? Why are you not

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Speaker 2: interested to look at your candidate and find out.

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Speaker 1: No telling you my personal story. What I'm saying is

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Speaker 1: that's how most people, rightly or wrongly. What you're arguing

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Speaker 1: is is, I mean most people don't give the monkeys

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Speaker 1: because they're lazy. That's what it boils down to. They

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Speaker 1: can't be bothered.

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Speaker 2: I think there are several issues affecting it. We're using

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Speaker 2: an old postal system which no one used mailboxes, there's

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Speaker 2: no more local newspapers people are there is apathy, lack

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Speaker 2: of interest, lack of faith in local government and central government.

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Speaker 2: And then also if I know you spoke to the

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Speaker 2: minister before, but I think if we do consistent marketing

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Speaker 2: and administration through the Local Government Commission going forward, where

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Speaker 2: everyone knows like the Orange Man, which is consistent with

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Speaker 2: general voting, there would be maybe more interesting there and

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Speaker 2: then CIVICX education. We do need to get people more

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Speaker 2: interested because if you vote or not, it is still

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Speaker 2: going to be part of your life.

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Speaker 1: Couldn't Agreemore, couldn't agreenmore nice to talk to your registrants?

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Speaker 1: Who is the Gisbane WASH's VP of the New Zealand

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Speaker 1: government Auckland as of yesterday sixteen percent. I mean it's

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Speaker 1: truly pathetic. Wellington twenty You're stuffed. You can't use your

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Speaker 1: sprinkler in Wellington at the moment because they're so useless.

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Speaker 1: They couldn't fix the pipes, and yet you can't be

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Speaker 1: bothered voting christ Here's twenty four, Nelson twenty six. As

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Speaker 1: I said, Reddy is twenty three, Southland twenty nine. I

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Speaker 1: mean I go Buller Yay thirty six, and that's a thing.

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Speaker 1: Mackenzie District is the biggest in the country at thirty eight.

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Speaker 1: For more from the MI Casking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.