Thinking big, locally
ACROSS the country men and women who want to play their part in local government have got off the couch to put nominations in for this year’s local body elections.
Regardless of the eventual outcome or whether we agree with the views they are about to land on us, they deserve our congratulations.
An atmosphere where we have witnessed public vitriol, and not only on social media, towards both elected representatives and those who serve them, is not something the fainthearted would be keen to enter.
There are big issues for local bodies — addressing climate change, the Three Waters proposals, resource management reforms, Maori representation and the place of Te Tiriti, the as yet unknown outcome of the local government review (the draft report is due shortly after the election), to name a few.
It is too soon for analysis about how representative of the population throughout the country those standing for election may be, but it is clear in our circulation area the men still significantly outnumber women.
The number of women elected to local bodies has been slowly rising since 1989, and nationally at the last election they made up 36% of candidates.
However, their success rate was such they secured 39% of the places on offer.
Low voter turnout has been the bugbear of local body elections for decades now, dropping from 57% of those eligible in 1989 to 42.2% in 2019, although in the last three elections this decline has stabilised.
Most of the councils in the top 10 for turnout at the last election, attracting more than 55.5% of voters, were in the South Island — two of them district councils in our circulation area, Central
Otago and Mackenzie.
It is possible the firstpastthepost (FPP) system is offputting to some voters because in a crowded field, such as that for the Invercargill mayoralty where 10 are standing, it can mean that a candidate can be elected with a small proportion of the total vote and many votes are effectively wasted.
In the Dunedin mayoral race where there are 11 contenders, this will not be an issue because of the use of the single transferable (STV) vote system in play.
It is surprising there is still little uptake of the single transferable vote (STV) system. It was mandated for the now defunct district health boards, but councils can opt for it. This year only 15 councils will be using STV, up four from last election.
Although it might be more difficult to understand, it does, as Prof Janine Hayward, of the University of Otago department of politics says, better reflect the preferences of large communities of interest and avoid the overrepresentation of some groups which can occur under FPP.
Now nominations are in, it is time for armchair critics and even gutless keyboard warriors to do their bit — act as responsible voters and do more than treat voting papers as a piece of junk mail when they arrive next month.
Eschewing petty gossip and unsubstantiated claims in favour of reliable sources of information about candidates would be a good start, along with attendance at a candidates’ meeting, if possible.
Those with internet access could check out the performance of incumbents by viewing their contributions in meetings streamed online (these can be surprisingly enlightening, although not necessarily in a good way).
Trying to get to grips with what is important can be difficult when there are many candidates, not all of whom will have a handle on what is possible in local government.
Many of the issues we face are complex, involving the need to act locally and think globally.
It would be unfortunate if voters made decisions based on say, their unhappiness about the change in a speedlimit on a local road or the number of car parks in George St.