Now it’s time for something different
So much for the election that nobody cared about. In the end, voters across the region had their say in respectable, if not entirely commendable, numbers, and by and large they have opted for change. Four sitting mayors have been ousted, and fresh faces have been elected to councils that desperately need them.
That’s as it should be. Wellington and the wider region is in a state of gridlock, both literally and metaphorically; a vote for more of the same would have done little to get things moving. The problems of inadequate housing supply and traffic congestion have become all the more pressing in the past three years because solutions seem as far away as ever.
Greater Wellington Regional Council has survived the total wipeout that some incumbent councillors must have feared after the bus debacle, but both new and old faces are clearly on notice: the voters know who you are, and they expect better.
Ray Wallace’s defeat in Lower Hutt can be explained at least in part by timing: after his three terms at the helm, voters were simply ready to give someone else a try, and his opponent Campbell Barry ran a strong campaign, backed by the might of the Labour Party, which capitalised on that feeling.
But Viv Napier in South Wairarapa, Mike Tana in Porirua, and Justin Lester in Wellington were one-term mayors, and could have expected to be re-elected. For Lester, in particular, the race was his to lose; he was sleepwalking to victory until not very long ago. Now his political ambitions have been severely dented, and he can no longer be seen as one of Labour’s shiny new stars.
Rival Andy Foster’s dismissal of Lester’s reign as a ‘‘smile and wave’’ mayoralty was perhaps a little unkind, but it was not without a grain of truth. Crowd-pleasing gestures to core supporters are to be expected from all politicians, but they can never be a substitute for meatier action.
Hawke’s Bay, meanwhile, showed that neither name recognition nor a ubiquitous presence on social media are enough to secure victory on their own. Former Cabinet minister Chris Tremain was trounced in the Napier mayoral race by the lesser-known Kirsten Wise, and Sandra Hazlehurst hung on in Hastings against the social media marketing clout of opponent Damon Harvey.
Along with the intractable problems of housing and transport, all the new councils will have to tackle the question of voter engagement. Though turnout improved dramatically in the last few days of voting, the overall numbers are nothing for anyone to be proud of.
How councillors continue to connect with the people who put them there – and more importantly the people who couldn’t be bothered – will be crucial if local government is to remain a truly representative democracy.
The answer cannot be a descent into USstyle celebrity politics. There will rightly be concern in some quarters that it took an injection of star-power and money from Sir Peter Jackson to turn the Wellington mayoralty race into a genuine contest.
There is no reason to disbelieve Jackson when he insists he will not seek to have any influence on Foster’s mayoralty.
But the onus will be on Foster to prove he is his own man, and that he can lead a council which leans considerably further to the Left than he does.
He will also have to lead a couple of new councillors considerably younger than he is. Tamatha Paul, 22, and Teri O’Neill, 21, are among several new young faces across the region, along with Sophie Handford, the 18-year-old climate strike leader, who has been elected to Ka¯ piti Coast District Council while still at school. Many of her campaign team were too young to vote for her.
Their voices will be welcome additions to debate around the council tables. It can only be hoped that their youthful enthusiasm won’t be too blunted by the slow-turning cogs of bureaucracy they will undoubtedly encounter.
They should be congratulated, as should all the weekend’s winners – and losers, too – who poured their hearts and souls into the past few weeks of campaigning.
Exposing oneself to public judgment in this way takes courage and optimism, as well as a measure of egotism. May they all retain the former qualities, while doing their utmost to suppress the latter.
Crowd-pleasing gestures to core supporters . . . can never be a substitute for meatier action.