It’s that time of year again: billboards line fences and roadsides, posters with grinning faces are everywhere, targeted ads are clogging your social media feed. Winter has come and gone. Election season is here.
But with 39 candidates for the Dunedin City Council (DCC) and 12 Dunedin candidates for the Otago Regional Council (ORC), and fuck-all information about who they are and what they stand for, can you really be blamed for just going “ceebs” at it all? Unfortunately, that’s the perfect way to end up with councils full of nutcases, making terrible decisions about your environment, your buses and your city streets.
The team at Dunedin Community Builders, an informal volunteer-run network of local organisations, have been doing the mahi to make this information overload less overwhelming. They’ve sent a standard list of four questions to every local election candidate, and published their responses verbatim on their website, here. But because Critic Te Ārohi realises four questions are still far too many for our overworked, overwhelmed, smooth little brains to handle, we’ve further summarised these answers into single paragraphs below.
Remember: for DCC elections, you pick one Mayor, then rank your preferred candidates for Council. You can rank as many people as you want, but don’t have to rank everyone – just the ones you want. For ORC elections, you can choose up to six candidates. Voting opens on Thursday 16 September, and as they need to be sent by snail mail, make sure it’s in a postbox by Tuesday 4 October.
And if you enrolled or changed your address after 12 August, you won’t get your voting papers in the mail – you’ll need to get them from your local Electoral Officer (Anthony Morton, 03 377 3530 or amorton@electionz.com). Yay democracy, and happy voting.
Running for Mayor of Dunedin
Aaron Hawkins
Green Ōtepoti
Aotearoa’s first Green mayor has stuck firmly to his guns, seeking to make sure everyone in our community has “equitable access to the opportunities our city provides”. Despite this, he’s championed his ability to get others on side, “building broad political support for progressive ideas that put social and environmental wellbeing at the centre of what we do”. He says “while there’s plenty more to do,” he’s made “amplifying Māori voices” and “building relationships with mana whenua” a priority in his time as Mayor. Aaron wants to continue advocating for “neighbourhood-scale community development,” saying that “in an increasingly unstable climate, stronger communities will help us through challenging times.”
Bill Acklin (also running for DCC)
Independent
“Big Bill” Acklin doesn’t seem to be “Big” on answers, giving only a sentence or so for each response. Saying “housing” is Ōtepoti’s number one priority, Bill says he’ll speak for “business, sporting, disabled and performing arts” communities, but adds that he will “represent all residents”. He says he’ll honour local bodies’ obligations to Māori by “listen[ing], engag[ing] and respond[ing]”. Bill wants to support community development “investing in partnerships that can get things done”. According to his website, he’s also an advocate for “a complete rebuild of city parking,” being transparent about “what council is doing with their money,” and says issues around Three Waters have been “handled poorly” by the DCC.
Carmen Houlahan (also running for DCC)
Independent
Carmen drew a distinction between community consultation (“telling people what we are doing and asking what they think”) and engagement (“asking what people would like”), saying she would like the DCC to “do more engagement”. She “fully supports Council building strong relationships with mana whenua, and working and engaging [with them],” advocating for mana whenua to continue to be represented on the DCC’s Infrastructure and Planning committees. Carmen also hopes to “nurture” relationships with other councillors, saying that “there are some members of Council who have not been keen to work together, and I think that is a shame.”
Jett Groshinski (also running for DCC)
Independent
Jett, a 2nd year Uni student, has made climate change central to his campaign, hoping to develop an action plan for Ōtepoti to be “the forefront of the country in how it acts”. He also highlighted the growing housing crisis and calls for increased funding for community housing. Jett emphasised the importance of elected members having cultural competency and partnership with mana whenua, saying “all standing committees” should have mana whenua representation. He hopes for councillors to “collectively work together to do the best for the majority,” and aims to “have a more collaborative council”.
Mandy Mayhem-Bullock (also running for DCC)
Independent
Mandy’s firmly focused on the cost of living crisis, giving a special shoutout to student concerns like soaring rents and flats breaching Healthy Homes standards. She claims to be supportive of co-governance, increased representation of mana whenua in council and cultural competency training for elected members, but raised concerns about “current reforms from central Government, especially Three Waters”. She hopes to improve “community resilience… as we face climate change,” and says that if elected, she will be the “voice of diversity” with a special focus on “equity, inclusion and accessibility.”
Pamela Taylor (also running for DCC)
From vowing to “destroy the Treaties, oaths or vows made secretly against the People of Dunedin in the name of Jesus,” to advocating “creating more CO2 as this makes plants grow faster” and railing against the “Globalist banking cartel,” her Facebook page (under the name “Pamela Pirie”) has more nut than an all-boys flat on a cold winter night. Critic Te Ārohi tries to steer clear of endorsing or rejecting particular candidates, but for this anti-vax conspiracy theorist overlaid with an extremist, hardline conservative “Christianity” that almost all churches would recoil at – fuck this to high heaven.
Sophie Barker (also running for DCC)
Independent
Sophie says “it’s obvious that Council is not fully representative of all communities,” and that “it's our responsibility to ensure all voices are heard.” She calls “climate change action” the biggest issue facing Ōtepoti right now, and says “affordable, safe housing,” including expanding DCC housing, is “at the forefront of immediate actions we can take.” She’s also keen to expand mana whenua representation onto all DCC committees, and hopes to ensure they are “actively partnered in our discussions and decisions”.
Did not respond, but here’s our one-sentence vibe check:
David Joseph Milne
A self-described “entrepreneur”, bringing a business-minded approach to “reduce costs at the DCC” in the name of “efficiency”.
Jules Radich (Team Dunedin)
The headline act for centre-right Team Dunedin, he’s focused on “saving South Dunedin,” and has a passion for motorcycles and underwater hockey.
Lee Vandervis
He’s big-time anti Three Waters, and said on Radio One last week that he “doesn’t see a problem” with the state of student housing. But besides his political views, he’s probably better known for taking the DCC to the Supreme Court over a $12 parking ticket.
Richard Seager (Southern Independents)
We tried to find him online, but it’s difficult because he’s been banned by every major social media platform for rabidly conspiracist views. Man loves his trans-port, not his trans women.