Whanganui district councillors divided over representation for 2025 election

Whanganui District Council will confirm its future representation arrangements at a meeting on September 3. Photo / NZME

There were passionate speeches in Whanganui District Council chambers this week as elected members grappled with the make-up of council for the 2025 local elections.

In June, a working party recommended that the council comprise eight councillors from the general ward and two from the Māori ward but that was overruled by the council which proposed 10 from the general ward and two from the Māori ward.

The working party’s recommendation was brought back to the table by strategy and policy committee chairwoman Kate Joblin during deliberations on representation review submissions on Tuesday.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe was in favour of 10 councillors, saying it would lead to more efficient decision-making.

He said by his calculations, there would be a $10,000 remuneration increase for councillors if there were 10 instead of 12.

“That would attract a new person, a new kind of person, a new persona to consider running for council because they can see it is able to make their life work.”

Councils in Tauranga, South Wairarapa, Rotorua, and Ruapehu all had fewer than 12 councillors, Tripe said.

“It’s working for them so I can’t see why it wouldn’t work for us.”

Councillor Rob Vinsen said Tauranga City Council “destroyed themselves through factionalism” and that could happen in Whanganui if the council was not careful.

Tauranga councillors were sacked in 2020 by then-Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta who cited “poor behaviour”, “infighting”, and not setting “realistic” rates.

“The number of councillors we’ve got now gives a greater opportunity for the community to be heard and for more views to come around this council table,” Vinsen said.

“It’s a myth that other councils have less [councillors] than Whanganui. There are a few but the majority have either equal or more.”

Vinsen said reducing the numbers would make it harder for new people to be elected.

Councillor Jenny Duncan said efficiency was a “function of systems, processes and leadership”, not “a function of numbers”.

“I can’t find how efficiency is simply going to come because we drop two people off,” she said.

“We heard that a number of councils have fewer numbers than we do but we didn’t get any evidence that they function any better.”

Joblin said she had sat on boards for more years than she cared to remember and 13 (12 councillors plus the mayor) was too many to be totally focused and efficient.

“I think we would achieve more by having 11 people around the board, possibly even less, but that’s not up for an option today,” she said.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe says increased remuneration for elected members could attract new kinds of people to run for council. Photo / NZME

Joblin, Tripe, Deputy Mayor Helen Craig and councillors Josh Chandulal-Mackay and Charlotte Melser voted for 10 councillors. Duncan, Vinsen and councillors Ross Fallen, Peter Oskam, Charlie Anderson, Philippa Baker-Hogan and Glenda Brown voted against.

A motion was then put to have 12 councillors with Duncan, Vinsen, Craig, Fallen, Oskam, Anderson, Baker-Hogan, Brown and Melser in favour. Tripe, Joblin and Chandulal-Mackay voted against.

Councillor Michael Law was absent.

The committee will recommend the council, at its meeting on September 3, adopt the representation proposal of 12 councillors (10 from the general ward and two from the Māori ward) and retain the Whanganui Rural Community Board.

Apart from Oskam, councillors voted for the recommendation that the community board comprise two Whanganui members, two Kaitoke members, three Kai Iwi members and two additional members appointed by the council, representing the Whanganui general ward and/or the Whanganui Māori Ward.

Before deliberations, the committee heard verbal submissions on representation from members of the community.

Peter Edmonds said he was in favour of 10 councillors and it gave iwi “a better proportion of the whole”.

“It would be a challenge they would have to accept for a greater degree of responsibility within the aegis of the whole council,” he said.

Former Whanganui district councillor John Anderson said more than half of those entitled to vote in local body elections failed to do so.

“In some respects, the concept of democracy is under threat,” he said.

“In my view, tinkering with the current representation model is simply not addressing the problems we face.

“My plea to you is to look wider, think deeper, and make bolder decisions.”

Anderson said a decrease in diversity would be expected if there were fewer councillors.

Consultation on the 12 councillor proposal ran from July 2 to August 4. There were 190 public submissions, with 58% in support of it.

However, 50% of submitters were opposed to the proposed structure overall, 37% were in favour, and 11% did not know.

There was wide support for the community board, with 67% in favour of retaining it.

Governance services officer Sasha Matthews said those who agreed with the proposal thought it was fair, welcomed Māori wards, and believed the structure matched Whanganui’s population numbers.

“They also expressed satisfaction with how the current system is working,” she said.

“Meanwhile, those that disagreed had a common theme - the belief that democracy shouldn’t be race-based and Māori wards weren’t needed in Whanganui.”

Matthews said the number of submissions was a huge improvement on the last representation consultation in 2019, which received only 10.

The decision regarding Māori wards is outside the scope of the council’s current representation review.

Last year, elected members voted eight to five in favour of establishing them for the 2025 and 2028 local elections.

The Government has said councils which created Māori wards without a poll must either reverse the decision or conduct a binding referendum during the 2025 election.

* This story has been updated to add the voting on a subsequent motion to have 12 councillors. The closing date for the consultation has been corrected.

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.