New bloods are set to be agents of change
As the curtain falls on election season in Christchurch, the mood of change has indeed reshaped the city council, without toppling the matriarch. Lianne Dalziel had every reason to breathe a deep sigh of relief as progress results spilled forth on Saturday. Her job may be intact, but the stature of her mayoralty has been blunted by a bruising year of missteps, culminating in a severely whittled down mandate at the ballot box.
In 2013 and 2016, Dalziel romped to resounding victories, scoring 75,000 votes. Based on the 2019 preliminary count, her level of support has crashed to 47,000, failing to even muster majority support from the 102,000 votes cast.
Compare that with 2016, when she scooped 84 per cent of the votes cast.
Despite the power of incumbency, and the fact that Christchurch has not ousted a sitting mayor since 1972, Dalziel was clearly beatable.
In fact, if a more savvy campaigner with institutional knowledge, like James Gough, had run, her mayoralty would have been toast.
But as I predicted on Friday, Dalziel would be re-elected because her main challenger had demonstrably failed to sell the sausage.
Beyond the sloganeering and one-liners, Darryll Park just couldn’t seal the deal on winning over enough voters, repeatedly struggling to elaborate on his plans with any credible, compelling and clear-eyed detail.
I do not doubt his conviction, but he looked grossly under-prepared, flaky – even cavalier.
Failing to assiduously do the policy work was a strategic disaster, as he was always going to be exposed in the debating ring, where Dalziel pummelled him, mercilessly.
The radio debates were the killer blows – his campaign was irreparably damaged. Dalziel was right – he looked ‘‘clueless’’.
Pulling in 30,000 votes is a respectable enough effort, and Park deserves credit for making all the running early on, defining the campaign narrative and setting the agenda, starting with rates restraint.
But after getting off to a bang, it was a long whimpering limp to the finish line.
Truth be told, zero-rates increases was always going to stretch credulity.
Shooting for inflation-capped rates, or rates rises under 3 per cent, would have been a wiser course – as many of the newly elected councillors did.
It’s particularly pleasing to see that many of the new bloods have won public office on the back of their proven business acumen, pledging to apply their commercial smarts and fiscal discipline to the city’s agenda.
Business as usual won’t cut it for the likes of Sam MacDonald, Catherine Chu, Phil Mauger and James Daniels.
They are change agents, determined to derail the 50 per cent rates increase trajectory over the next 10 years. All power to them.
I hope the mayor, who has never really been on board the rates restraint train, heeds this clear cry from the voter.
You may recall in August, I bullishly projected that we’d see six new councillors elected in October – which is what has transpired. The winds of change weren’t exactly cyclonic, but the stiff zephyr of city discontent was self-evident.
Out east, it was blowing a gale. The unceremonious dispatch of both local councillors, Glenn Livingstone and David East, speaks to residents’ profound sense of contempt for perceived council neglect.
Phil Mauger absolutely routed Livingstone in Burwood.
Meanwhile, what a cliffhanger in Halswell! The incumbent, Anne Galloway, is a very low-profile councillor, but she’s just clung on to her job, by fewer than 200 votes, with special votes still to be counted.
Paul Lonsdale sure ran it close to being the seventh change to the council table.
Finally, there’s no question that the Deon Swiggs debacle cast a pall over the business end of the election campaign, producing a chilling effect on the real issues and distracting voters’ attentions.
If the mayor and council had formally investigated the veracity of the complaints many months ago, as they should have, the effect of the allegations on the campaign process could have been avoided. For a flurry of formal complaints to be thrust before the council in September looked politically engineered to assassinate a councillor’s career.
I believe Swiggs’ social media interactions with young people were hazardous to himself. But the manner in which this saga was politically augmented is deeply unsavoury.
It’s particularly pleasing to see that many of the new bloods have won public office on the back of their proven business acumen ...