Milner harnesses disquiet but refrains from attacking Foon

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Mayoral candidate Geoff Milner has stolen a march on potential rivals with his announcement that he will challenge Meng Foon in the local body elections in October.

His timing is good — harnessing community disquiet over council decision-making that is strong at the moment, and allowing nine months to focus on his campaign.

There is speculation that lawyer Tony Robinson, whose questioning of the council rebuild proposal has created a good deal of that disquiet, will stand as well.

Mr Milner warned yesterday that “challengers cannot afford to split the vote” when seeking to change a five-term mayor, but “if there are other people who intend to stand I say good on them — get into the arena”. First he quoted former US president Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts . . . . The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”

One concern for the Mayor will be that Mr Milner will challenge him for the Maori vote, which has been one of the bedrocks of his success in previous elections.

Mr Milner has Ngati Porou heritage and was chief executive of Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby Union, part of a CV that includes 12 years on the Eastland Community Trust, being chairman of the Eastern and Central Community Trust and a ministerial appointment to the Tairawhiti DHB.

At 48 he is six years older than Mr Foon was when he first became Mayor in 2001.

Mr Milner is shrewd in refraining from attacking Meng Foon, saying he has voted for him but that five terms is enough — and referencing “an emerging crisis of confidence between the people who voted in this council in 2013 and 2016, an election year”.

His theme that it is time for new leadership is an argument that inevitably gathers force the longer anyone holds a job, from selector to CEO to prime minister.

Mr Milner says his focus will be to promote the vision he has for a future Tairawhiti, which involves lifting “a lot of the negativity, heaviness and lack of hope that many families and businesses in Gisborne are feeling”.

His announcement adds more early life into October’s elections.