Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst was all smiles at the Blossom Parade, safe in the knowledge she had another mayoral term sewn-up. Photo / Paul Taylor
Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst was all smiles at the Blossom Parade, safe in the knowledge she had another mayoral term sewn-up. Photo / Paul Taylor
OPINION:
After the final votes are cast and councillors and mayors are elected this weekend, there will be commentary bemoaning the state of local democracy in New Zealand.
Another local election cycle, another year of low voter turnout, they'll pontificate about.
In this particular editorial, you won't find that. I heard an interesting point the other day that I want to share.
In a chat with RNZ's Corin Dann, NZ Herald local government reporter Simon Wilson noted low voter turnout could actually be a sign that people are pretty happy with the way their councils are operating.
Wilson surmises that if a minimal change is needed, people become less desperate to vote, and lower turnout is the result.
It's not that voters aren't able to be engaged in local politics, it's that they don't feel they need to be as engaged.
When putting it into the context of what we've seen throughout this election campaign in Hawke's Bay over the past few months, I would say that Wilson's point rings more than slightly true.
Central Hawke's Bay has a mayor in Alex Walker who's got a good grasp on the district's issues - good enough that no-one saw fit to try to challenge her.
And the fact not one person in Hastings wanted to go toe-to-toe for the mayoralty with Sandra Hazlehurst is a sign of the respect she's generated in the community over the past five or six years with her council's water infrastructure spending and revival of the city centre.
Over the last month, the last meetings have been held, and farewells arranged for outgoing councillors.
Now we hold our breath to see which of the incumbents around the region's five tables will find themselves without a seat.
No matter what happens on Saturday, I think a word of thanks is needed for this current crop.
In 2020, we were hit with the coronavirus crisis and lockdown - a widespread upending of daily Hawke's Bay life, the likes of which none since the 1931 earthquake have ever experienced.
Our local leaders who worked in tandem to help guide our communities through the mayhem of lockdown deserve some plaudits.
And then when 2021 came along, the region again needed united leadership to drive widespread vaccination.
Hundreds of lives could easily have been on the line if the ruthless Delta variant of Covid had been left to spread through an unvaccinated Te Matau a Māui.
This region was mercifully spared from the clutches of a vocal anti-vaccination leader, who could easily have driven a wedge at the worst time into the most vulnerable communities.
Omicron waltzed in and changed the Covid game almost as soon as jabs were in arms, but that can't take away what an achievement reaching that 90 per cent vaccinated target was.
Of course, people still have their issues with the way their councils are being run, and people should vote if they haven't already. Please do it.
But even if all the pleas are ignored and we end up with low turnout in Hawke's Bay, it's not necessarily a sign local government is in crisis. Not yet, anyway.
