Speaker 1: Kilda.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
Speaker 2: daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Local government
Speaker 2: is how communities democratically decide what.
Speaker 1: Happens in their backyards.
Speaker 2: It could be the park on the corner, what day
Speaker 2: our bins go out, your neighbor's making too much noise,
Speaker 2: how much you pay in rates, or whether your dog
Speaker 2: can enjoy the beach off lead. Every day we encounter
Speaker 2: a council decision.
Speaker 1: Whether we know it or not.
Speaker 2: So why is voter turnout always so low? There are
Speaker 2: seventy eight local authorities in New Zealand, eleven regional councils,
Speaker 2: twelve city councils, fifty four district councils and Auckland Council
Speaker 2: which combined eight former councils in the Big Super City
Speaker 2: amalgamation of twenty ten.
Speaker 1: That means there are a lot of roles up for
Speaker 1: grabs to.
Speaker 2: Dive into what you need to know about this year's
Speaker 2: local elections.
Speaker 1: Today on the front.
Speaker 2: Page we have news Talks ZB News director and Local
Speaker 2: government reporter Michael Sergel. Michael, do we know anything about
Speaker 2: what voter turnout might be like this year?
Speaker 1: And how it compares perhaps to previous years.
Speaker 3: Yes, we've already got some numbers as of last week
Speaker 3: about eighteen percent turnout, which was compared to about ten
Speaker 3: point five percent at the same time last time, which
Speaker 3: is a positive sign. Voting is quite a bit higher
Speaker 3: in rural and provincial areas than Muori wards than it
Speaker 3: is in general metro areas. That's normal, that happens every
Speaker 3: time as well. We've got much lower turn out and
Speaker 3: Carterton and much higher turn out and wide Hoer. But
Speaker 3: that's also just because small population centers tend to buck
Speaker 3: the overall national trends. And looking at the latest metro
Speaker 3: and numbers from this week, some cities with lower voter
Speaker 3: turnout last time, like Hamilton and Wellington are seeing a
Speaker 3: really huge improvement this time. But there's no real change
Speaker 3: in those two big cities, Auckland and christ Church.
Speaker 1: And so what are the percentages? What are we looking at?
Speaker 3: So we're looking at it varies between city and city
Speaker 3: that christ Church has sort of tends to have the
Speaker 3: highest turnout about twenty five percent so far, but the
Speaker 3: others it's in the teens.
Speaker 2: I did hear an interview on z B recently and
Speaker 2: they were like, oh, we're hoping for forty percent, and everyone.
Speaker 1: Was like, that is abysmal.
Speaker 2: But forty percent if we're looking at like twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: and that's one of the highest, forty percent is.
Speaker 3: A good bench right, Yes, a forty percent it would
Speaker 3: be a pretty good sort of turnout for most centers,
Speaker 3: particularly given it's a postal vote. You don't get the
Speaker 3: same engagement that you get at a central election, particularly because
Speaker 3: we don't have the polling day and as many polling
Speaker 3: places as we would for a general election.
Speaker 1: How many votes have been cast this far.
Speaker 3: So we don't have sort of complete official numbers for
Speaker 3: the whole country. But yet, as I say, as of
Speaker 3: last week, about eighteen percent of people had returned their
Speaker 3: voting papers, which is a really positive sign compared to
Speaker 3: that very low turnout we saw in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: I read your article where you delve into the more
Speaker 2: than two hundred people who will be elected unopposed this weekend.
Speaker 1: Tell me about these numbers, yes.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean may sing like a lot. I've been
Speaker 3: analyzing about seven thousand council races over five consecutive local
Speaker 3: elections that specifically me as councilors, local board members, community
Speaker 3: board members, anyone who sits around a council table and
Speaker 3: makes those decisions about what the council should be doing.
Speaker 3: And consistently across every single election, one in seven, more
Speaker 3: than one in seven people are being one just by
Speaker 3: just winning that race, just by standing in the race.
Speaker 3: Which may seem like a lot, but it's actually been
Speaker 3: trending downwards. It's trended down by about a third since
Speaker 3: two thousand and one, and every election it generally tends
Speaker 3: to be lower than the last election. We've got three
Speaker 3: of christ Church's councilors, two of Auckland's already elected, and
Speaker 3: more than half of councilors on some councils have already
Speaker 3: won their seats just by filling in the application form.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 2: I mean, is it because people don't understand what local
Speaker 2: government does?
Speaker 3: But yeah, there's a range of factors potentially at play. Certainly,
Speaker 3: abuse and harassment does put a lot of people off
Speaker 3: low pay because some of these positions might only get
Speaker 3: paid ten thousand dollars and it may be thirty to
Speaker 3: forty hours a week of work for some people. So
Speaker 3: that definitely puts some people off as well. But then
Speaker 3: you know we're talking to the Gisbon mayra Het Stalks.
Speaker 3: She's saying that often that's also a sign that people
Speaker 3: are happy with their current mayor or their current counselors,
Speaker 3: and so no one stands against those people because everyone
Speaker 3: quite likes them. We've got the case in Auckland with
Speaker 3: Desley Simpson, who's very popular in her ward, so no
Speaker 3: one has sort against her. We've got two of the
Speaker 3: major meal candidates both committing that they would like to
Speaker 3: a point heard their deputy. So in many cases it's
Speaker 3: also a sign that people are popular. And I mean
Speaker 3: it's much lower than say the United States. We've got
Speaker 3: much more unopposed races than the UK or Australia, but
Speaker 3: fewer than the United States. Have actually looked at what's
Speaker 3: happened in the US, and I mean it's more than
Speaker 3: more than it's almost two thirds of me is and
Speaker 3: more than half of councilors in the US are unopposed,
Speaker 3: so they will pay de fault. So we're certainly not
Speaker 3: in that kind of situation. But then there's also the
Speaker 3: counter argument from some people that perhaps we have too
Speaker 3: many roles. If all these positions are going unopposed. Maybe
Speaker 3: we need to reduce the number of local government roles
Speaker 3: and have a bit more competition for those roles.
Speaker 2: Do you think there are any councils around the country
Speaker 2: that can perhaps be amalgamated, like the you know, the
Speaker 2: super city situation.
Speaker 3: We've had two examples, two really good examples in recent
Speaker 3: years with christ Church and Banks Peninsula amalgamating and then
Speaker 3: Auckland's bigg amalgamation. And people have divided opinions on those.
Speaker 3: But they are also calls in Hawk's Bay and Wided
Speaker 3: Upper in Southland from algamating local government. And there's also
Speaker 3: places where you might look at a map and you
Speaker 3: wouldn't know where the boundary line was between Wellington City
Speaker 3: and Pottydoa for example, or between Nelson and Tasman. You
Speaker 3: could look at a map and not know where those
Speaker 3: council boundaries are, so peraps you know, there may be
Speaker 3: a case for algamation there as well.
Speaker 2: Are there any roles around the country where there are
Speaker 2: actually no candidates?
Speaker 3: Yes? Actually, and this is something that happens every single election.
Speaker 3: Many roles have no candidates. This election alone, we've got
Speaker 3: positions on community boards and for Katane Wellington, Do Lakes,
Speaker 3: New Plymouth, Rural Hastings, Hamna Springs, McKenzie Gore. These are
Speaker 3: jobs that absolutely no one stood for.
Speaker 1: That no one so what happens?
Speaker 3: So they have to be filled because you know, they're
Speaker 3: roles that have to be filled, So they're subject to
Speaker 3: buy elections, most likely next year. The local ratepayers will
Speaker 3: then have to pay for those by elections, which will
Speaker 3: cost tens of thousands or potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Speaker 3: And ironically, these by elections tend to be far more
Speaker 3: competitive than the main local elections because people suddenly realize, oh,
Speaker 3: there's these jobs up for grabs, and so ironically you
Speaker 3: often have multiple people standing for a role that no
Speaker 3: one wanted in the first place, which is ironic, and
Speaker 3: that there's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of salaries
Speaker 3: that no one has applied for, which is unheard of
Speaker 3: in any other industry.
Speaker 2: Right now, I mean, do you do you need any
Speaker 2: prerequisites to put No?
Speaker 3: I mean there's there's basically no, there's no sort of
Speaker 3: standards you need to meet. Really if if I mean
Speaker 3: if you're not in prison and you know you win, well,
Speaker 3: I mean if you apply. If you pay the money,
Speaker 3: then you know you can. You can take these roles
Speaker 3: and I suppose represent your local community. The qualities that
Speaker 3: I'd love to see from our elected members.
Speaker 4: Vision, passion, I can do, attitude and pragmatism.
Speaker 3: And they absolutely need to be able to build consensus
Speaker 3: to get decisions made. Elected members are essential for Auckland
Speaker 3: because a wide range of perspectives is needed to guide
Speaker 3: our government.
Speaker 4: They represent the people of that community. They know the communities,
Speaker 4: they know the issues, and I think it's a very
Speaker 4: very good model, very important model to encourage local people
Speaker 4: to stand for their local body.
Speaker 2: So at the moment, looking at the local elections twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, I mean I'm sitting there on Saturday. What
Speaker 2: elections are heating up the most? Where do I watch?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a number that I think you should look
Speaker 3: out for. I mean, obviously we've got Wayne Brown in Auckland,
Speaker 3: film Major in Christchurch, George Reddicks Redick in Dunedin and
Speaker 3: Nick Smith and Nelson all seeking a second term elect
Speaker 3: did on that blue wave last time. In Wellington, We've
Speaker 3: got and little most likely according to the latest polling,
Speaker 3: winning the Wellington Maror Race, but lots of interesting candidates
Speaker 3: in that race. Some sitting councilors, an ice cream chain owner,
Speaker 3: a silly hatter and even a clown standing in that race,
Speaker 3: all hoping to be mayor. And in Hamilton we're getting
Speaker 3: a new mayor. A bit of a generational battleground happening
Speaker 3: there as well. You may remember Ben Bell, themir of
Speaker 3: Gore who considered resignation after surviving a no confidence motion
Speaker 3: after that rift with the CEO.
Speaker 1: That's right, and he was the youngest life.
Speaker 3: And he was the youngest last time as well, and
Speaker 3: he is seeking a second term, so it'll be interesting
Speaker 3: to see what happens there. Nearby an in for Cargo,
Speaker 3: we've got Nobby Clark, who obviously came under a bit
Speaker 3: of fire for some comments at a public event and
Speaker 3: also some comments in an interview with Guy Williams. So
Speaker 3: he is now retiring. His brother, Andrew Maxwell Clark is
Speaker 3: standing for mayor of Invercargol, and he's also standing for
Speaker 3: mayor of Tasman. Then we've got another Tasman mayor who's
Speaker 3: standing for five mayoralties in five different parts of the country.
Speaker 1: How can you do that?
Speaker 3: You can? Both of them are well within the rights
Speaker 3: to stand for multiple different mayalties. So we've got one
Speaker 3: guy standing for two, one guy standing for five, and
Speaker 3: I suppose they picked the one that they want the
Speaker 3: most if they if they were to win multiple races.
Speaker 1: Is that because they are in different property around the country,
Speaker 1: or that you.
Speaker 3: Can just stand in multiple elections and some people do.
Speaker 3: This guy in Tasman has stood for those five mayorties
Speaker 3: last time as well, so he's a repeat, repeat candidate.
Speaker 3: In Clipita, we've got Craig Jepson, the self described Trump
Speaker 3: of the North. He's the guy that sort of enforced
Speaker 3: a ban on kadokey in council meetings. He also stopped
Speaker 3: climate change work, so he is he's actually stepping aside,
Speaker 3: but he's endorsing his deputy, who has sort of a
Speaker 3: similar vision. It sort of interesting to see what happens there.
Speaker 3: We've got some long standing maya's stand down. We've got
Speaker 3: some well known names standing. Oscar Kitely, Real Housewives star
Speaker 3: Anne Bartley Burton is standing as well in local boards.
Speaker 3: And we've got a comedian, Jermaine Ross, who's asking people
Speaker 3: not to vote for him, but he's obviously a well
Speaker 3: in recognized name in the community. Too, and you may
Speaker 3: member Michael Organ, who was the subject of David ferry
Speaker 3: As twenty twenty two documentary Mister Organ, he is standing
Speaker 3: for a council seat in Wanganui and inn Waidoa. We
Speaker 3: have one counselor who is hoping to get elected. He's
Speaker 3: campaigning for the councilor to get involved in the cannabis trade.
Speaker 3: So be interesting to see if he gets any support
Speaker 3: around the council table if he is elected on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, why does that comedian not want anyone
Speaker 1: to vote for it?
Speaker 3: So he says he's told Ryan Bridge on Hill Now
Speaker 3: a few weeks ago that basically it was a bit
Speaker 3: of a deer and so he lost the deer. He's standing,
Speaker 3: but he's asking people not to vote for him. He's
Speaker 3: just hoping that his campaign, I suppose, sort of attracts
Speaker 3: a bit of interest in the local board races, which
Speaker 3: are really important around Auckland and often get you know,
Speaker 3: as we say, have really low voter turnout, but they
Speaker 3: matter a lot.
Speaker 1: O Zelenski was a comedian. He got put into a
Speaker 1: big role.
Speaker 2: I've read a piece in newsroom from Mark Dolder examining
Speaker 2: He examined one thousand council candidates. You've got a hand
Speaker 2: and done seven thousand, but they did a thousand, and
Speaker 2: it shows candidates for local and unitary councils are overwhelmingly older,
Speaker 2: they're men, and they're white.
Speaker 1: Does this come as a surprise.
Speaker 3: To you, Absolutely not. If we look through the candidate
Speaker 3: list for the last two decades, consistently, there has been
Speaker 3: an over representation of European New Zealanders, of men, of
Speaker 3: older people, and that's been across almost every part of
Speaker 3: the country. There's a new demographic survey of those standing
Speaker 3: in Auckland this year and that shows a decline in
Speaker 3: pacifica a decline in news on European but still overrepresented.
Speaker 3: There is an increase in Asian candidates standing, but they
Speaker 3: are still vastly underrepresented at the local level. And we've
Speaker 3: also seen a trend the number of women standing has
Speaker 3: actually started to drop again. So we saw that rise,
Speaker 3: you know over.
Speaker 1: Deck Bak, I remember that that was rising at one point.
Speaker 3: And we've seen a lot of obviously a lot of
Speaker 3: women mayors, a lot of women counselors, but the number
Speaker 3: of women standing for those roles is starting to drop again.
Speaker 3: And a key factor of that talking to a lot
Speaker 3: of women in local government is the abuse and harassment
Speaker 3: they receive, which tends to be higher for women than
Speaker 3: it is for men.
Speaker 1: What have they told you, Well.
Speaker 3: We certainly know that there's a lot of sort of
Speaker 3: gender based sort of harassment and abuse and that can
Speaker 3: be very intimidating. And yeah, it's kind of worrying if
Speaker 3: we're seeing things sort of trend in the opposite direction
Speaker 3: and we're seeing women vastly underrepresented at the local government level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember that survey that came out of former
Speaker 2: female members of parliament saying about all of the abuse
Speaker 2: that they got on a daily basis, and it certainly
Speaker 2: does beg a question on whether you know, the public
Speaker 2: needs to calm down a bit against women.
Speaker 3: And local government. Usually on surveys have actually found a
Speaker 3: similar thing at the local level, and we've had a
Speaker 3: number of councilors actually resign or retire from local government
Speaker 3: in recent years because as women they received a lot
Speaker 3: of abuse.
Speaker 2: Has anyone kind of backed out of the race because
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 3: This year, I'm not sure aware of any examples, but
Speaker 3: certainly in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty two, and even
Speaker 3: back in twenty sixteen, we had we had counselors saying
Speaker 3: I've had enough of the abuse, and that you know,
Speaker 3: women counselors saying, you know that they were being targeted
Speaker 3: so often and they just had enough and it wasn't
Speaker 3: worth it for the amount of money they're receiving, for
Speaker 3: the amount of I suppose positive you know, feedback they get.
Speaker 3: There was just so much sort of overwhelming negative sort
Speaker 3: of abuse and harassment. And also people forget that a
Speaker 3: lot of these elected members, they are only one vote
Speaker 3: around the council table, and there's only so much they
Speaker 3: can do. A lot of these issues, a lot of
Speaker 3: things in the hands of central government, and even as
Speaker 3: ME is, a lot of the power is diffuse. So
Speaker 3: that they can set the media agenda, they can set
Speaker 3: the council agenda. With their budgets, they can I suppose,
Speaker 3: lead a lot of the council meetings. But even still,
Speaker 3: even as ME is the only one vote around the
Speaker 3: council table and the council can only do so much itself.
Speaker 1: As well, what does the council do?
Speaker 3: So councils do lots of things. I mean, most significantly,
Speaker 3: I suppose that the roads, the three waters, so you know,
Speaker 3: the sewerage and the water supplies, the parks, the libraries,
Speaker 3: most of the things that we use on an everyday basis,
Speaker 3: like everything that we need to leave the house, if
Speaker 3: we do leave the house on a day to day basis,
Speaker 3: we need the councils to be running those things. And
Speaker 3: whether you're a ratepayer or a renter, which is an
Speaker 3: indirect form of rate payer, you're paying for those services.
Speaker 3: And in recent years as well, we've seen rates go
Speaker 3: up quite significantly in some parts of the country, you know,
Speaker 3: by up to twenty percent a year in some places,
Speaker 3: and that definitely sort of affects households that definitely haven't
Speaker 3: seen their incomes increase by that much.
Speaker 1: And tell me about what happens this Saturday.
Speaker 3: So basically, if you haven't already sent off your vote
Speaker 3: in the post, you're going to need to send it,
Speaker 3: take it to a voting place. That's supermarkets, that's libraries,
Speaker 3: and also council offices. You can also cast a special
Speaker 3: vote at some of those places as well. Then at
Speaker 3: midday Saturday, those ballot boxes will be closed strictly at midday,
Speaker 3: the vote counting of those ballot boxes will begin. We
Speaker 3: will start to get some preliminary results. They're indicative, they
Speaker 3: tend to be, you know, sort of follow through to
Speaker 3: what the final results are, but they're not official. Those
Speaker 3: results will start coming through from one o'clock one thirty
Speaker 3: and through the afternoon and evening, and they will tell
Speaker 3: us most likely who has won those key races, the
Speaker 3: meilt races, the councilor races, and to some extent the
Speaker 3: local board community board races as well. Some of those
Speaker 3: results may change if there's some really close races, and
Speaker 3: we saw that last election with some of those sort
Speaker 3: of councilor races, ward races in some of the big cities.
Speaker 3: But we will know most likely the mayors of our
Speaker 3: largest cities on Saturday afternoon, and we will have all
Speaker 3: of those results throughout the afternoon on news talk SeeDB
Speaker 3: and at INSIDHERL dot cod at INZID as well.
Speaker 1: Looking forward to it. Thanks so much for joining us, Michael.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
Speaker 2: can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
Speaker 2: at nzadherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
Speaker 2: produced by Jane Ye and Richard.
Speaker 1: Martin, who is also our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2: Subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
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Speaker 2: behind the headlines.