Saturday 21 August 2010

NZ Local bod nominations - discussion thread

Yesterday nominations closed and were disclosed for the hundreds of elected local body positions all over Aotearoa NZ. While there's been immense media focus on the race for just one of those spots, that of the new Auckland Super Mayor, there's a lot more to it than that, including community boards, licensing trusts, health boards, councils, and many more mayoralties besides.

Running my eye over the Auckland-related nominations*, cos that's where I live and have the most interest, there does seem to be the usual dominance of male candidates. Based solely on names they also look to mainly be Pakeha. As more information comes out about candidates I guess we shall see if the candidate pool looks more diverse than in years gone by.   If I get a chance I might run some numbers on it later in the week.  If anyone has links to candidate nomination lists in their area do feel free to share them in comments too.

What do the nominations look like in your neck of the woods?  Are there any candidates you are particularly excited about, or someone who's success you dread?

It's been surprising to see up here a few people come out of the woodwork like Sir Barry Curtis seeking one of two Council seats for Manurewa-Papakura.  As previous Mayor Forever of Manukau he'd have to be a certainty.

There's a profusion of confusing (to me) new tickets with names that don't really say much about their politics or affiliation (I particularly love it when people say they are on a ticket that uses Independent in the name - I saw one called Proudly Independent on the list somewhere this time!).  As things unfold where these tickets sit will become clearer I hope, although that will rely heavily on local media doing that work and communicating it effectively to voters.  Everything in Auckland seems to be contested, with the possible exception of a few of the licensing trust spots.

There's going to be an enormous number of people participating in the democratic process around the country over the next six weeks; as voters, as candidates, as supporters of tickets and individuals, as local community people highlighting their local issues, as media, and as a combination of several of these things at once!  Please show some patience and compassion for those out there seeking your votes for themselves or others - you might think they are wrong but clearly they don't, and putting your name and time and at least a little money on the line should get them a bit of respect for their efforts (for the first 30 seconds anyway ;-).



*And yes, my name is listed as standing for the Local Board in my area. I won't be campaigning on this blog, that's not what this space is for.  I have no idea what my chances are, but I imagine reasonably low given I haven't run before and a number of other factors at play locally and personally.  I'd love to serve my community on the Local Board - time will tell if I get that chance! 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

you're second on the voting paper. I think your chances are reasonably good.

Carol said...

Here is the website for the progressive coalition in west Auckland (the new supercity is organised into geographic sectors):

http://futurewest.org.nz/

Each ward lists their local board candidates (some with more info than others).

Yes there are more males than females, and more pakeha/whites, but not exclusively.

And I see the new Whau ward (Avondale, Blockhouse Bay, New Lynn. Kelston, Green Bay, New Windsor) has one more female candidate than males.

PS: I tweeted this site URL yesterday, and attracted a woman in charge of a website design consultancy. She was most scathing about the use of white print on black. She said that research shows that most people have zero comprehension for that colour format. personally, I quite like it.

Carol said...

City Vision is linked from the Future West site:

http://cityvision.org.nz/page/home

But the City Vision group is also a centre left coalition, and the website provides background on 3 left-wing councillor candidates:
# Cathy Casey
# Glenda Fryer
# Mike Lee

And it also provides info on the local board left candidates for some Auckland City (as it is now) wards.

Julie said...

Not sure how you managed to ignore the need for a handle Anon - that's a warning. As it's a straight comment I'll let it stay.

As for the substance - tell that to Neil Abel!

Thanks Carol for the info on the Future West and City Vision tickets. (The ticket I am standing on is supported by CV.)

Carol said...

Yes, I saw your picture there, Julie, and the bit about you, after I did the above post. Hope you do well.

I'll be voting for some progressive/left candidates. At this stage, I'm a little confused. I can see I have west board members to vote for, but there don't seem to be any West councillor candidates on the website. (I'm having trouble with PDF's freezing my browzer ATM, so haven't looked again at the candidate list.)

Though I guess my voting choices will be on my voting paper.

Alison K said...

Oh, I thought you were joking (or at least being sarcastic) about the "proudly independent" bit - but searched the list & found TWO!

I'm not sure i can make any useful analysis or comment on this, but I am a bit surprised & a bit disappointed.

Matthew Goode said...

Yeah, I'm running too (Albert-Eden Maungawhau), and trust me, I rant and rave to friends about how there is a bias (outright exaggeration) towards white/Pakeha people running, and then lament the fact that yes, I'm white and male. But, at least the first thing I noticed at the candidate meeting I went to was the fact that all-bar-one of the other people were white too (and tending toward male - especially in the higher "ranks) - what worries me is that many other people at that meeting may not have even noticed, let alone let out a mental "oh for fuck's sake, this is seriously screwed up" (30% of my subdivision is Asian).

In my region things seem very interesting - we have the usual C+R/City-vision split (so, the same kind of rough political mix as your subdivision?), but we also have the Focus Local crowd, who make it all the more interesting as to whose vote they may split (I'm guessing City Vision).

Azlemed said...

Palmerston north has 6 men running for mayor, the most likely winner is the incumbant, there are over 38 candidates and only 1/3 are female.... not great, there are no tickets here which would actually be good as you would know where they sit.

D

M said...

Hamilton city council candidates list here: http://hamilton.co.nz/page/pageid/2145835130/Nominated_Candidates_2010

We've got two female candidates out of the seven up for Mayor, although one is Lisa Lewis and I can't help think that anything she does is a media stunt.
Julie Hardaker will be getting my vote for mayor and I am hopeful she has a shot.
I know very little about most of the candidates for the two wards, 13 of the 39 standing are female and I'm pretty sure Pippa Mahood will be back in, she's been there for a long time and has a great reputation. Time for some research before the election.

Carol said...

Got my voting papers. I don't have a great choice for 1 councillor for the new Whau ward in Auckland. It makes it more difficult that it cuts across the existing Auckland/Waitakere border, so I'm not familiar with current Auckland Councillors.

I have the choice bwteen
Ross Clow (Independent Ratepayers and Citizens)

Ruby Manukia-Schaumkel (Independent)

Jeremy Kirwan (Independent)

Noelene Mary Raffills (Citizen and Ratepayers.

I could not vote for any of them, but think it's probably better to vote for the lesser evil. It's out of the 2 Independents, with Kirwan looking the most promising.

Manukia-Schaumkel looks too much focused on economic issues and keeping rates low for my taste.

Kirwan's blurb says he's for overhauling and developing the transport infrastructure "in line with Aucklanders habits and needs"; using IT to consult with the community via citizens' referenda, abolishing bureaucracy surrounding consents; quality community facilities; "public ownership of council shareholding"; value for money at lowest rates possible; "common sense accountability to ensure Auckland experiences sustainable growth economically and socially..."

Well Kirwan sounds closest to my views. Anyone know anything about him, pelase?