Rotorua Lakes Council spent almost $130,000 on election advertising. Photo / File
Voter turnout. It was the hot topic this general election as just two of the region's eight councils attracted a turnout of more than 50 per cent despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising. Zizi Sparks finds out who spent what and just how many people voted.
Rotorua Lakes Council spent almost $130,000 trying to encourage people to vote — yet just 40 per cent of eligible people bothered to have their say.
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Information released to the Rotorua Daily Post under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act revealed how much councils in the region spent on election marketing.
Rotorua Lakes Council spent the second-largest sum, only behind Tauranga City Council.
The information included Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Rotorua Lakes Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Whakatāne District Council, Ōpōtiki District Council, Kawerau District Council, Taupō District Council and Tauranga City Council.
Rotorua Lakes Council spent $129,000 marketing the campaign encouraging people to vote in the October elections.
About half of that budget - some $64,376 - was spent on billboards, signs and banners, $21,979 on print advertising, $17,600 on buses, $18,710 on digital advertising and the remainder on radio advertising and miscellaneous items such as T-shirts, stickers, pens and coasters.
About $25,800 worth of the items would be able to be reused for future election campaigns, according to the information in the request.
All was done by in-house staff.
The Rotorua Daily Post compared voter turnouts from 2019 and 2016 for all councils.
Rotorua's turnout dropped 1.5 per cent to 45.2 per cent.
Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers Association chairwoman Glenys Searancke said the money was well spent in her view and warranted given the large geographical area the district council covered.
"We have poor turnout across the country ... I don't think advertising makes a lot of difference.
"But I don't think it's money wasted, we must encourage people to vote and how else can we do it?
"It's not money down the drain, it's a thing we need to promote. We need to encourage people to vote."
Local Government New Zealand senior policy adviser Mike Reid said there was no proven link between advertising spend and turnout.
I don't think it's money wasted we must encourage people to vote and how else can we do it.
"Councils are encouraged to look at what they know about their own community. We encourage them to focus on communities that don't tend to participate as much.
"One of those groups is certainly young people. They are frequently flatters moving around and voting papers may not get to them," he said.
"People who vote are usually those who have been living in the same community a long time. They have a sense of belonging and are more likely to be looking at the state of the local park and they are more likely to be thinking about who's on the local authority."
Reid said the amount councils had spent on election campaigns did not surprise him.
He said it was the responsibility of council chief executives to promote turnout and how much they had spent depended on multiple factors.
"A big part of it is how big a council is. The larger the authority the more difficult it is to get the message out, the more money you have to spend.
"The costs reflect the size of the place geographically and population," Reid said.
"It depends on communication techniques different councils use and the other factor would be other demands on council budget and the level of priority the council gives to promoting turnout."
Local Government New Zealand also developed branding and social media messages many councils could use.
Councillor Reynold Macpherson - secretary of the ratepayer association - said he believed the council thought the spending would boost participation, but it did not.
He said the expenditure "did not translate into support for the incumbents".
"Another factor, such as the growing alienation of voters, could explain the outcomes."
Rotorua deputy mayor Dave Donaldson said he was aware the amount spent marketing the election was a "significant increase on previous elections".
This was due to a requirement on council chief executives to encourage voting.
"Despite that Rotorua barely achieved the same voter turnout as in 2016 but consider the pathetic voter turnout for the Rotorua Trust election a month later where very modest promotion took place and ask, is that where we could have landed."
Donaldson said his view was election promotion shouldn't just be down to the candidates.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council spent $14,783 on its election advertising as of November 7. Three of its seven constituencies were uncontested.
Between September 20 and October 11 the regional council spent $2825 in the Eastern and Kohī constituencies, $7740 on the Western and Mauao constituencies, and $3860 in the Rotorua constituency. A total of $358 was spent on social media.
A number of invoices were yet to be received so the figures show the total budget allocation for the campaign rather than the actual amount paid.
The smaller councils in the region spent up to $10,325. Taupō and Kawerau spent nothing on advertising. Meanwhile Rotorua Lakes Council spent the second highest at $129,000.
Kawerau District Council's finance and corporate services manager Peter Christophers said the council did not incur any additional direct costs for encouraging people to vote and did not engage any public relations company of pay any council-controlled organisations.
The council advertised in its monthly newsletter and reminded people to vote on its website and Facebook page.
Whakatāne District Council advertised on behalf of the three eastern Bay of Plenty councils and carried those advertising costs, Christophers said.
Voter turnout in Kawerau was up 3.3 percentage points to 48.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, Taupō District Council did not have its own separate marketing campaign but used the information generated by Local Government NZ and the Society of Local Government.
Most of this was through press releases and existing council advertising such as social media.
Despite this voter turnout rose two percentage points to 52.2 per cent.
Ōpōtiki District Council also spent a relatively low amount. As of the end of October, the council had spent $195.50 on print media advertising.
It also had orders outstanding for an additional $1,932.00 for print media, digital images and radio advertising.
Voter turnout for the district increased 12.2 percentage, from 41.8 per cent in 2016 to 53 per cent in 2019.
Western Bay of Plenty and Whakatāne district councils both spent about $10,000 but had vastly different voter turnout.
In Whakatāne $9622.80 was spent and the turnout was up 5 per cent to 51 per cent.
In the Western Bay of Plenty, that figure was $10,325 with a turnout drop of 7.1 per cent to 38.8 per cent.
The money was spent between July and August and included $6430 on print advertising, $3205 on display material and $690 on getting that display material translated into six languages.
All spending figures are GST-inclusive.
A disregard for authority could be why those attending court are thumbing their noses.