Council salary a bonus for successful schoolboy

Joseph Bergin. Photo / Greg Bowker

Joseph Bergin's first Super City pay packet arrives next month.

While most of his peers at Rosmini College are worrying about their haircut, exams or girls, the Year 13 student and deputy head boy has become the new council's youngest member, at 18.

As a Devonport-Takapuna Local Board member he will earn $37,000 a year.

His first purchase will be replacing his "bomb" of a car.

The teenager worked at the Bridgeway in Northcote to pay for his campaign.

With a tiny winning margin of 84 votes, he has a nervous wait as the special votes are counted.

But his election has already exceeded his expectations.

"It was beyond my wildest dreams that I would get 5800 votes. I thought at first if I could raise some youth issues and the need to use modern communication [in council] I would be happy."

Disappointed by low voter turnout and youthful apathy to politics, he campaigned for the Super City as a "new face for a new council".

With the advantage of fluency from his years in the school's debating team, he impressed voters on the street.

His use of social networking and his pinpointing of issues that affected young people - such as a deteriorating skate ramp - encouraged teens to vote for the first time.

He planned to study law next year.

If he ticked off the issues on his political checklist in his first term he will consider stepping aside.

JOSEPH BERGIN
* Devonport-Takapuna Local Board
* Age: 18

EXPERIENCE
* Two years on North Shore Youth Council
* Deputy chairman of the North Harbour branch of the Young Nats