Meates on middle ground
Christchurch mayoral hopeful David Meates says he is a ‘‘truly independent’’ candidate who wants to get more people involved in decision-making while changing the city’s rhetoric of disasters.
Meates, who was the Canterbury District Health Board boss between 2009 and 2020, will go up against Christchurch city councillor Phil Mauger in the race for the mayoralty in October’s local body elections. The incumbent mayor, Lianne Dalziel, is not running.
Mauger has been tipped in the race as the traditional candidate of the right – but Meates did not see himself as the candidate of the left, instead saying he was ‘‘truly independent’’.
In his first interview with The Press since he announced he was running for the mayoralty, Meates said he sat ‘‘firmly in the middle’’ of the political spectrum.
He said he would be ‘‘quite different’’ to Dalziel, though he praised her service and said she put the building blocks of the rebuild in place.
He wanted to change the rhetoric of the city, making it more confident, forward-looking and vibrant, instead of ‘‘a place that has just had every disaster that could be dreamed up thrown at it’’.
It was ‘‘unusual’’ for a city like Christchurch to have three tertiary institutions, said Meates.
‘‘There’s a lot of innovation, a lot of opportunity that sits here, and yet I think we’ve been a wee bit anchored back to the past decade of earthquakes.’’
Meates has spent the past nine months working in Britain. He said that gave him a different perspective on Christchurch. ‘‘To really step away and kind of see it for what it is, from the outside back in, that was a really powerful bit for me making the decision to come back [and run for mayor].’’
He wanted to connect and engage communities, and give more decision-making power to the city’s six community boards.
‘‘Local communities actually know about what’s important to them,’’ Meates said, and, if empowered, could make a real difference in their neighbourhoods.
Meates said his health background – leading large, complex organisations that had ‘‘challenging and gnarly’’ problems – was an advantage.
He said his own track record showed he had built ‘‘more health facilities and large structures than any other person in this country’’ with a record of delivering amidst tight constraints and pressures.
He said the proposal by mayoral rival Phil Mauger for a roving crew to help fix up footpaths was already available through the council. ‘‘You’ve got to be really careful about just coming up with random fixes,’’ Meates said. ‘‘We need things that are going to be sustainable fixes for a city.’’
Meates said basic functions of the council needed to be exemplary, but added: ‘‘Councillors’ role is not to be in there doing. [Their] role is to actually have an organisation that is being responsive.’’
He added: ‘‘Does the city need a leader, or does the city need someone that’s going to look at fixing every issue that’s sitting there today?’’
‘‘There’s a lot of innovation, a lot of opportunity . . . yet I think we’ve been a wee bit anchored back to the past decade of earthquakes.’’
David Meates’ entry into the Christchurch mayoralty race has provided a welcome spark to October’s elections. The former chief executive of the Canterbury District Health Board brings a public profile, exemplary management credentials and an ideological contrast to opponent Phil Mauger.
But ‘‘spark’’ is as pyrotechnic as it gets. It will not have escaped at least some voters that, for the umpteenth time in New Zealand local body elections, we have a contest between two white men of a certain age.
This, of course, should not count against
Mauger or Meates. Both are eminently qualified mayoral candidates.
They are not the problem, they are the symptom of one.
Diversity in New Zealand’s council chambers is improving. According to a Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) survey, 40.5% of elected representatives at the last local body elections in 2019 were female, up from 38% in the previous cycle.
Ma¯ ori representation is also rising, and although the skew to older councillors is stubborn – the vast majority are aged over 50 – the number of sitting representatives younger than 40 is nearly double that elected in 2016. However, one figure in the LGNZ survey stands out. Women, while elected in disproportionately low numbers to all types of local bodies, are represented least of all as mayors.
[The younger] cohort was dominated by women, before the chart inverted to account for the surfeit of older men. Almost a literal illustration of women being hounded out of higher office.
Diversity in public office is held back by all kinds of biases. Not all of these are created equal, though, and of late, perhaps the most toxic and insidious have been those directed at women. The higher the office, it seems, the worse it gets.
Outgoing Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel provides some context for this.
In a speech to an audience in Dunedin at the weekend, in which she spoke about her impending retirement, she said if social media had existed 30 years ago she may not have entered politics at all.
‘‘I was probably in the right place at the right time,’’ Dalziel said of her election to Parliament in 1990. ‘‘The internet wasn’t standing in my way.’’
Still, she recalled, as a new backbencher, a National Party politician once referring to her as a ‘‘little girl’’. One of the major pieces of advice she offered aspiring politicians, but particularly female ones, was not to read comments on social media.
‘‘There is no question in my mind that women are subject to more abuse [than men],’’ she said.
Sceptics need look no further than Christchurch city. Councillor Sara Templeton was trolled by members of National’s youth wing for years until they were exposed by The Press in March.
Nationally, Green MP Golriz Ghahraman needed a security escort in 2019 after a series of death threats.
Former deputy prime minister and National MP Paula Bennett also endured threats of sexual violence while in office. The online and in-person abuse was ‘‘relentless’’, she said.
It’s difficult to diagnose the reason for a real or perceived increase in such threats, but the immediacy and proximity offered by social media is a common theme.
One of the other telling statistics in the LGNZ survey was on a graph that showed representatives by both age and gender.
While there were far fewer young people, this cohort was dominated by women, before the chart inverted to account for the surfeit of older men. Almost a literal illustration of women being hounded out of higher office.
Unless we plan on contenting ourselves with paltry increases in diversity each electoral cycle, this needs to change. Phil Mauger, David Meates and everyone who may vote for them, or run against them, deserve as much.