Local Focus: Re-elected Palmerston North mayor wanted more debates

Grant Smith has been re-elected mayor of Palmerston North City Council with 12,985 votes. It's a significant lead over his nearest rival, Teanau Tuiono, who received 2244.

"I think we've done a good job as the council in the last two years," said Smith.

"There's always going to be singular issues but in general I think we improved the lot of all in Palmerston North over the last three years, whether it be around economics, the environment, social livability of the city... I think we did a reasonably good job and that was reflected in the voter turnout."

Smith says there are plenty of jobs across a number of sectors including agribusiness, defence, health, and distribution.

"Our niche is around our manufacturing and tech so there are jobs happening in all of those sectors."

While Smith agrees housing is a challenge he says the city hasn't sold its public and social housing.

"We've actually improved that in the last 10 years and I think people were quite touched and thankful about that."

Smith says with around $4 billion of work projects that are going to happen over the next eight to 10 years, the city must be prepared around infrastructure.

"I'll be setting up a new infrastructure committee which will be a standing committee meeting monthly, that will actually progress that work, keep offices and projects on track."

Smith is also setting up a sustainability committee with focus on the environment and climate change.

The mayoral race could have been more dynamic Smith believes.

"In all honesty we didn't have enough debates," he said. "And we could've had a lot more, we could've talked a lot more about the real issues."

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