Candidates jostle for seat at ILT table
Voting papers for the Invercargill Licensing Trust’s by-election are set to be sent out this week. Logan Savory caught up with the five candidates in the running for the vacant seat.
Louise Evans
Louise Evans wants to provide a younger voice around the Invercargill Licensing Trust board table.
Evans left Invercargill as a 17-year-old and lived in various parts of the globe before falling in love with her home city when she returned for a visit.
The now 33-year-old sees Invercargill as having huge potential and she wants to be a part of positive change.
‘‘I truly believe the board needs a younger perspective and I would really like to attract and engage the younger generation.’’
She wants Invercargill to be more vibrant and feels the ILT could help with that by providing more diversity in its hospitality offerings. It is something she misses from her days living in Sydney, she said.
‘‘Coming from Sydney, I miss alleyway bars or places where you can take your dog and have a beer – so a little bit of diversity.’’
Evans would also like the ILT to look at incentivising staff by providing opportunities to invest in some ILT businesses.
She used Windsor Wines manager Stephane Fabre as an example of a ‘‘bright spot’’ in the trust and someone who would be worthy of offering investment opportunities.
Evans is employed as a chief activator for Coin South, an innovation network for Southland business startups.
Through that role, she has been working with the food and fibre sector and said the food coming out of Southland was amazing. However, she wasn’t seeing enough of it on menus in Southland. ‘‘I would love the ILT to support local food on local menus.’’
Reece McDonald
Reece McDonald would love to see outsiders’ negative perception of Invercargill change and believes the ILT can play a role in leading that.
It is one of the factors behind him putting his name forward for the by-election.
After confirming he would run, McDonald admitted to getting a lot of the feedback from people around the level of service that the trust is providing for Invercargill restaurant and bar patrons.
‘‘When people come to town they are generally going to run into an ILT establishment, so that’s the face of it when people come to visit,’’ McDonald said.
‘‘It’s really interesting asking people where their favourite place is to go for dinner. What’s your top three choices? None of them are ILT establishments, so something has got to change there.’’
McDonald acknowledged that the ILT had different roles. One was as a hospitality provider, and the another was its role as a community funder.
There needed to be assurances that the funding was going to the right places, McDonald said, but he added that it would take a spot on the board to make a firm assessment of that at the moment.
McDonald is a born and bred Southlander who 15 years ago started the Ricoh franchise in Invercargill. He has grown the business from two staff members in its initial days to the 10 staff it now has.
McDonald has held previous governance roles as chairman of the Waverley Park School board of trustees and president of Cycling Southland.
He viewed an opportunity on the ILT board as the next step in helping the community in a governance role, he said.
Jason McKenzie
Jason McKenzie believes the ILT could do a better job of educating the community about what it does and why it does certain things. The ILT was not just a funder, he said.
It was a business that had to be sustainable and had to operate within certain parameters.
McKenzie felt there was a need to better explain that, while also outlining the benefits it offered the city.
McKenzie is currently on the ILT Foundation board, which operates the gaming machine component of the organisation.
He is now after a spot on the main ILT board through the byelection and feels he would help with a smooth transition.
‘‘From my time on the ILT Foundation I understand the crucial piece of the puzzle the ILT has played in our community in the past and will into the future. The organisation has been led strongly through challenging times,’’ he said.
McKenzie is best known for his work in the sporting sector as the manager of the Academy Southland programme, which is in place to help talented Southland athletes.
He also works with national sporting organisations and will attend the Olympic Games in Toyko, Japan, this year providing mental skills support for the New Zealand team.
McKenzie has an educational background and experience in the social sector as a family court counsellor.
In terms of governance, McKenzie has spent time on the Waihopai School and James Hargest College board of trustees.
‘‘I’ve experienced the positive impact ILT has on the wellbeing of our community across all sectors, and now this is a chance for me to give back and contribute my skills to help ensure that continues.’’
John Pringle
John Pringle believes he has the governance experience and skill set to be an asset to the ILT.
He’s also keen to help push the trust into ‘‘modern times’’.
Pringle feels the hospitality industry in recent years has moved towards smaller, quirky, diverse offerings rather than big establishments.
He pointed to New Plymouth as a city of similar size to Invercargill that has smaller establishments – whether they were craft beer bars or gin and cocktail bars.
He does not believe Invercargill has kept up with that shift in consumer demand.
‘‘[I] am a strong supporter of the trust. The trust has been a successful organisation for many decades and the challenge is to keep it relevant and successful in difficult and changing times.’’
Pringle is a senior partner in law firm Cruickshank Pryde, practising in the areas of business, property, and family law.
He is on the New Zealand Family Courts panel of Lawyer for Child, as well as being a New Zealand Law Society family mediator, a member of New Zealand Rugby’s appeals council, and chairman of the Rugby Southland appeals and board selection panels.
Pringle has held the role of Pirates-Old Boys Rugby Club president and the Rotary Club of Invercargill Sunrise.
He has an interest in music as a singer-songwriter who has written and recorded two albums, and he would like musicians to be given more opportunities in ILT establishments.
‘‘I’d like to see a small stage put into different venues and get people playing there.’’
Pringle himself has performed in many venues around the city.
Lindsay Thomas
Lindsay Thomas wants the ILT to ensure its suburban taverns are community hubs for the areas they operate in.
‘‘Communities are important, as was proved with Covid, so making our taverns familyfocused is one way of connecting them,’’ he said.
‘‘Our local taverns – more of community places for families and elderly to enjoy time at.’’
He pointed to examples such as making sure meeting areas were available at the taverns for groups as ways to develop community hubs.
Thomas said the ILT was owned by the public, so he would like to see more transparency around what the strategic plans were for the future of its various establishments.
He also would like to know what the ILT’s long-term plans were to cater for the new 600-house subdivision, named Te Puawai, that is planned for the Rockdale Rd and Tramway Rd area. ‘‘At the moment there are only two [ILT] pubs south of Tay St,’’ Thomas said.
Thomas is a former Invercargill City councillor who spent 12 years around the council table.
He said he likes what the ILT is doing with its hotel build and he would like to take on a governance role with the trust.
During his last term on the council, he spent a lot of time working on the city block development, he said. He would like to continue some of that work through a role on the ILT board.
Thomas views an important role of the ILT in helping smaller groups, whether it be scout groups, chess clubs, dance groups or other organisations, to keep costs down for young people to take part. There was a need to ‘‘support young people with the enjoyment and socialisation which is so important to their quality of life’’, he said.