“It’s good because it gives me an opportunity to work with the community a bit more,” he said.
He said he ran in the election because the rural community didn’t have a lot of local representation in Whanganui, while being a large part of the community.
“I think that all parts of the community need to be able to have a voice, and the Rural Community Board is one way that we can get to understand and know what is happening in the rural community.
“That’s the important part for me. Coming from a rural background, I think it’s particularly important.”
Doughty has been a dairy farmer for the last 30 years and was previously the provincial president for Whanganui Federated Farmers.
His dedication to fixing rural issues and building a sense of community in outdoor recreation earned him a Queen’s Service Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours last month.
His expectation as part of the board was to become part of a cohesive team to help the needs of the rural community.
“If you go in [with an attitude of] ‘I want to be able to fix this or fix that’, it might be a little bit tough. It’s about building bridges, building networks and getting on with people so that we can achieve what the consensus of the group needs to.”
He said rural people thrived on three things; roading, power and communications, and without them, the community would fall apart, so his focus on the board would be in these fields.
He said he now had to work to give people what they wanted.
He also thanked the other two runners who took part in the election for giving the community a proper choice of representatives.
“They actually made it a worthwhile little election, and instead of it being one person up there that goes on without any election, I think that it’s been really good to have other candidates as well.”
Overall, voter return for the election was 27.86 per cent of the subdivision, a total of 608 votes.
There is one special vote still to be processed and the final vote is expected to be available on Monday, July 10 once verification of the special vote applicant has been completed.
Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.
