Smith to run for Nelson mayor
Long-time former National MP Dr Nick Smith is running for the Nelson mayoralty.
Smith in late June said he was ‘‘seriously considering’’ running for mayor in this year’s local elections, and yesterday, with an experienced campaign team at his side, he confirmed it.
‘‘I love Nelson and I worry that our council has lost its way,’’ Smith said. ‘‘I’m offering my governance experience and my energy to provide the city with positive new direction.’’
Smith said that in the past few weeks he had met incumbent and previous councillors, council advisers, staff who had left and many community leaders.
‘‘The consistent message is that our council’s problems are deep-seated,’’ he said.
‘‘They’re not just about some acrimony around the council table but also a breakdown in the relationship between the council and its staff.’’
Smith said he was offering his three decades of experience as a local MP and more than a decade as a government minister ‘‘to deliver positive change’’.
‘‘My priority will be rebuilding trust around the council stable, with staff and with the community.’’
Smith was deliberately standing as an independent candidate.
‘‘I want to be Nelson’s mayor, not a National mayor,’’ he said. ‘‘I will commend Labour when they do good for . . . Nelson and I will challenge National if they propose things that are bad for Nelson. I am not part of any group of council candidates as I want to work collaboratively with whoever our community elects.’’
The number of experienced councillors, ‘‘particularly women, and senior managers
that are leaving is actually cause for serious concern’’, Smith said, referring to the fact that the city is set to get a new mayor, a new chief executive and at least six new councillors.
‘‘I will be urging Nelson voters to make sure we get a good diversity of experience,’’ he said, adding that candidates did not need to have previous local government experience.
It would be a challenge to get the newly elected council up to speed quickly but ‘‘I’m confident we can do it’’.
‘‘I’m offering my experience, which is strong on governance having spent 30 years as an MP but also as a member of the Directors’ Institute and in business for the job that’s required here,’’ Smith said.
‘‘I’ve been minister of 14 different portfolios and organisations that are many times larger than the council.’’
Smith said the most important skill he had was ‘‘the connections to tap into the huge, rich resource of talent that this city has to get the council on the right track’’.
The most important policy issue for the council election was the ‘‘loss of control’’, through the Government’s proposed Three Waters reform programme, of the city’s water infrastructure. That infrastructure, valued at more than $600 million, had been built up by ratepayers ‘‘over 170 years’’.
‘‘I do not believe that having our stormwater, wastewater and drinking water managed from Wellington will get a better outcome for Nelson,’’ Smith said. ‘‘I’m making it plain to the Nelson community that if they elect me as mayor, I will firmly and resolutely oppose the proposed model for Three Waters.’’
Smith looks likely to be up against at least four other candidates. Former elected member Kerry Neal as well as incumbent councillors Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, Matt Lawrey and Tim Skinner have all outlined their plans to vie for the top job.
Candidate nominations close on August 12 with postal voting scheduled from September 16. Election day is October 8. The 2022 local election is the first time Nelson will have a ward system and use a single transferable vote system.
Smith’s return to public life comes just over 13 months since he gave his valedictory speech in Parliament following a political career of more than 30 years, most as Nelson MP.
That self-described ‘‘messy exit’’ came amid a Parliamentary Service inquiry into a ‘‘verbal altercation’’ in his Wellington office.
Smith said he would be launching his campaign for mayor in a few weeks when he would outline his detailed plans for the council and the city.