Auckland mayoral election: No Mandate, no waking monster

Monday, 14 October 2019

John Tamihere hinted at running in the next general election last year after losing in his bid for the Auckland mayoralty.

Let's get one thing straight, failed Auckland mayoral challenger John Tamihere did not awaken a monster, as he claimed.

If there was an election turnout monster in Auckland, at best it opened one sleepy eye and finding little to arouse it, and slunk back into the cave of disinterest.

Suffering a defeat as big as Tamihere's is never easy, but his bitter and blaming concession speech showed that the hours he spent out of media reach after getting the result, had not been well spent.

Phil Goff celebrates winning his second term as mayor of Auckland

There was no waking monster, nor a National and Labour conspiracy to scuttle his bid. Twice as many people decided they would prefer Phil Goff as mayor, than Tamihere. Simple as that.

**READ MORE:

John Tamihere after losing his mayoral challenge to Phil Goff

* Auckland's mayoral election: Can it change the political map?

Phil Goff talks to media following his re-election as Auckland mayor. (First published October 2019)

* Educate kids, lower the voting age, explain why elections are important: just don't do online voting

* Local body elections: Five tips to get you voting**

* Local government elections heading for an all-time low voter turnout

Tamihere's not unusually incomprehensible speech is not the only hasty mis-reading of the Auckland Council election.

Goff's claim to have a 'mandate' is technically correct in political terms. He won. But getting the support of 14 per cent of eligible voters will not mean much around the council table.

Blaming the dismal turnout mainly on postal voting is also wrong. It is no doubt a factor, but only one.

Turnout is not an election problem, it is a permanent problem confronting Auckland Council which like many other local bodies is failing to connect and engage year-in, year-out with its constituents.

An analysis of who made submissions in the council's last 10 Year Budget consultation, showed it was a similar cohort to those who research shows are most likely to have voted.

Older, wealthier, whiter Aucklanders 'get' local government in away the rest of the relatively young and fabulously diverse population does not.

Those who have won seats on the council and local boards thanks to this lop-sided democracy, need to put near the top of their to-do lists in office, a serious examination of how Auckland Council does, and does not connect with its communities, every day.

Part of that is its competence, but let us not pretend that part of it will be what it costs to do better.

On the election front, some ideas have been floated by Dr Julienne Molineaux, a researcher at The Policy Observatory, within AUT.

These include putting the management and promotion of local body elections into the hands of the Electoral Commission, which runs the general elections.

It is an idea that also finds favour among Auckland Council officials, but council local knowledge would also need to find a place in getting the message to the varied communities.

Auckland Council's de-brief on the $1.6 million spend on getting voting up, needs to be a searching one that doesn't just look outwards for explanations in the wider world.

The council - officials and politicians - need to think deeply about how it reaches out into all of its communities, and provides for communities to reach in, in a way it has not done in the past.