Mayoral hopefuls grilled
A question about diversity sparked the biggest response from the Nelson and Tasman mayoral hopefuls at a lunchtime grilling yesterday.
The seven Nelson city and four Tasman district candidates at the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce Meet the Mayoral Candidates event each had two minutes to speak, before answering questions from the audience. One question that drew a response from almost every candidate was on boosting diversity in local government.
Mike Ward, standing for Nelson, espoused the single transferable voting system.
Rachel Reese, incumbent Nelson mayor, said that through her experience performing citizenship ceremonies, she knew that Nelson’s demographics were ‘‘like the UN’’, but this was not reflected in elected officials.
She used the moment to urge people to vote for two young council candidates. ‘‘Groupthink does not get good decision-making.’’
Nelson mayoral hopeful Tim Skinner also encouraged people to vote for diverse candidates, and said he would have five new candidates at his campaign launch, who he encouraged voters to meet.
Brent Maru, standing in Tasman, described himself as ‘‘proud to be Ma¯ ori but raised in a very European world’’, and said the way to solve representation was to start with ‘‘relevance’’.
‘‘We can’t get diverse groups voting, let alone standing,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got to be relevant to everybody. We’ve got to engage with all people.’’
Fellow Tasman candidate Tim King said he was ‘‘really pleased’’ to see more women standing for Tasman District Council, but said it was hard to get people to stand because of ‘‘negativity’’.
‘‘We need to get into a more positive discussion.’’
His thoughts were somewhat echoed by Tasman candidate Maxwell Clark, who said even engaging as a member of the public with the council was ‘‘confrontational’’ thanks to things like strict speaking-time limits.
Nelson candidates were asked to explain what progress would be made on transport. Reese said transport security was a ‘‘really big issue’’ for the wider region, and said the Nelson Future Access study was expected to have options available by mid2020. ‘‘It’s the first time we’ve actually had NZTA funding to get in here and have a look at this network infrastructure issue. We fought tooth and nail to keep that money.’’
She also said the Nelson and Tasman councils had moved their focus towards intensification, to decrease pressure on transport infrastructure.
Nelson mayoral candidate Bill Dahlberg said the Nelson Future Access project was a ‘‘re-badged’’ Southern Link, and he was committed to following the process through.
‘‘When you talk about Rocks Rd, we’ve got an ageing piece of state highway . . . if Rocks Rd was to fail, where’s the traffic going?’’
The mayoral hopefuls were also asked for their thoughts on amalgamating the councils. Most councillors spoke in favour of continuing to work together, without necessarily supporting amalgamation.
Clark raised concerns that ‘‘fragmented populations’’ would need to be heard and taken into account.