THOMAS COUGHLAN
Losing mayoral candidate lashes out at Sir Peter Jackson's cash
Money, low turnout, a possible shock ousting and a ‘‘youthquake’’ turned an otherwise boring local body election into a cliffhanger.
While in Auckland Phil Goff cruised to an easy win and Christchurch’s Lianne Dalziel saw off her challengers, two-time failed candidate Andy Foster was narrowly ahead in Wellington, with the result to be decided on special votes.
An embittered Justin Lester – facing a shock ousting after one term as Wellington mayor – is blaming Hollywood heavyweight Sir Peter Jackson’s money for swinging the result.
‘‘We could have spent more money, look, we spent a lot more money last time, we could have spent more money this time. It shouldn’t come down to that, it should come down to the best ideas and the best people,’’ he said.
Foster accused the media of being ‘‘fixated’’ on his multimillionaire backers, Jackson and wife Fran Walsh – while acknowledging they made a ‘‘big difference’’.
Foster finished fifth in the 2016 race but got Jackson’s backing after they joined forces to stop a Shelly Bay housing development.
It was the biggest shock of the elections, which were otherwise a success for the incumbents.
In Auckland, Goff doused fears the populist tactics of his former Cabinet colleague John Tamihere could pull off a Trump-like upset in Auckland. Tamihere had run a sometimes bizarre campaign, even uttering the words ‘‘sieg heil’’, and calling Goff a ‘‘little Hitler’’.
But speaking after his defeat, Tamihere was defiant, telling supporters his campaign had ‘‘woken a monster’’ ahead of next year’s general election. ‘‘Watch what happens next year.’’
Goff pulled off an astounding victory, winning 155,957 votes, more than double that of Tamihere.
He said his priorities were infrastructure, climate change and making council-controlled organisations more accountable to ratepayers.
‘‘Transport projects like the stage one of the $1.4 billion Eastern Busway, the Rosedale Station, the Hibiscus Coast Bus Station and the Puhinui Station Interchange will all be complete by the end of this term.’’
The strength of incumbency was felt in Christchurch too, with Dalziel, another former minister from Helen Clark’s Government, pulling in 44,800 votes, 10,000 more than her nearest rival.
And Dunedin turned in a fascinating result, as outgoing mayor Dave Cull handed his chains to Aaron Hawkins, who ran on a Green Party ticket.
Across the larger local bodies, the leftward tilt of the 2017 general election appeared to be intact. Central government always watches local government closely. If voters turn out incumbent councils, there’s a good chance they’ll turf out the Government too.
But even in Wellington, where the Labour-backed Lester fell to the centre-right Foster (liberalleaning National MP Nicola Willis attended his victory party), there was a wash of green and red on the city council, whose political alignment is now extremely at odds with the mayoralty.
Wellington was one of the councils that saw a strong ‘‘youthquake’’ as young candidates Tamatha Paul and Teri O’Neill won seats at the table.
And around the country,
councils are starting to look a bit more representative. New Zealand now has five mayors under 40 years old. A quarter of our mayors are now women, up from 19 per cent in 2016.
Hurunui elected its first female mayor, from a list of three female candidates.
But drawing a nationwide lesson from yesterday’s results comes with a big caveat: turnout continues to be incredibly low.
Although it was actually up on the last election, national turnout was just 44 per cent, according to LGNZ. In 2016 it was 42 per cent, and higher than 2013 when it was just 41.3.
Waikato district was the worst-performing, with just 28 per cent of registered voters casting a ballot.
And in the big centres, turnout was abysmal; Auckland looked to be at 31.48 per cent, Christchurch, 38.8 per cent, and Wellington 35.4 per cent.
It’s hard to draw a lesson from declining turnout. Ahead of polling day, some in Wellington had pointed to the fact that the race appeared to be much less exciting than in 2016, when turnout was higher. Those people will have woken up to a large helping of humble pie.
It appears Jackson’s affinity for Shelly Bay may have clinched that election. Instead of the revamped Sausalito-style development touted by developers, the bay seems destined to remain much the same as when Jackson filmed scenes for The Fellowship of the Ring near there almost 20 years ago.
But you can’t draw a direct line between competitiveness and turnout. In the Mackenzie District. 57.6 per cent of people turned out to effectively anoint incumbent Graham Smith as mayor – his only challenge was a joke campaign run by a Seven Sharp journalist.
Yet even in Mackenzie turnout was down on previous years – it was 64.26 per cent in 2016 and 63.37 per cent in 2013.
That could lead to renewed calls to trial some form of online voting for the 2022 elections.
This was recently mooted by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, but it will be strongly opposed by the security services.
Local bodies are keen for more powers, such as raising more revenue, which they believe could encourage people to take a greater interest.
With turnout reaching crisis levels in some areas, and staying well shy of general election turnout throughout the country, it looks like something needs to be done – and fast.