Tina Salisbury is running for mayor in the Tauranga City Council elections.
Former deputy mayor Tina Salisbury wants to leave the past behind her as she bids for the Tauranga mayoralty in the upcoming election.
Salisbury was part of the council that was deposed by former local government minister Nanaia Mahuta.
The Tauranga City councillors served just over a year of their term and were ousted because of infighting and significant governance issues in December 2020.
They were replaced by a four-person commission led by Anne Tolley in February 2021.
The commission’s term is soon ending with elections for a mayor and nine councillors taking place on July 20.
Salisbury said she was not involved in the interpersonal politics of the previous council.
”The city needs to move forward and leave all that behind us. We need to get on with the job because the job is big.”
Asked if she would do anything differently if she were to be elected, Salisbury said: “There really isn’t much I would do differently.
”I was values-driven then, and I’m values-driven now. I worked hard then, I will work hard now.
”My only regret is that I didn’t have the opportunity to complete the work that I was elected to do and I’m asking for that opportunity now as mayor.”
Asked if she would have any concerns if other members of the previous council were elected, she said: “I trust the city to elect good people to lead the city and I will work with whoever is elected.”
Salisbury is only running for mayor and not as a councillor in her home ward of Welcome Bay.
”I was initially going to run for both, but I just felt like what we need is a decisive leader in our city and so in running, I would like to be that leader.
”Welcome Bay, it’s my home, but I think we need decisive leadership.”
She said she decided to run again because she understands the complexities of Tauranga from having already been on council.
”I learned a lot in that process and feel that I can bring a different style of leadership to the city to be a part of the solution.”
Salisbury was a first-time councillor when she was elected in 2019 and was appointed deputy mayor after Larry Baldock resigned from that role in June 2020, remaining a councillor.
Asked if her different leadership style was compared to past leaders, she said: “Perhaps politics in general.
”I think we all would like to see a culture change. In the way politics is done, the way councils are run, and I think I would bring that style of leadership.”
She said her leadership style was “decisive and collaborative”.
”I engage, listen, I can pull people together. I’m a team person and I think that’s how we’re going to find the solutions, we’re going to do it together.”
Salisbury said if elected her key priorities would be to address the housing shortage, build a connected city through transport and infrastructure, value community and foster collaboration.
She has been a business owner, a church pastor and became a justice of the peace in 2021.
After her time on the council, Salisbury was part of the Wednesday Challenge, the initiative that aimed to get people out of their cars and using other modes of transport every Wednesday.
She was also the interim chairwoman of the Welcome Bay Community Centre.
Salisbury said she had continued her work in the community with the homeless and advocating for young people.
”I’ve been focused on that community work for a long time and that’s what drives me; for our city to become a place where we can all thrive.”
Nominations for mayor and councillors in the Tauranga City Council election are open now and close on May 24.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
'It’s been nearly a year and I still feel uncomfortable. I want to forget about it all.'