Who runs the Tron? Candidates look to disrupt city office

Monday, 3 June 2019

Louise Hutt, 26, say young voters don't trust the status quo.

Louise Hutt has rounded up friends and walked them to a polling booth, such is the importance she places on casting a vote.

But dismal turnouts, like the 33 per cent Hamilton voter participation at the 2016 local body elections has her looking for systemic change. Hutt, 26, is running for mayor of Hamilton and the Hamilton West Ward this year.

Meleane Burgess, running for the Hamilton East ward this year, has set out to recapture the community's faith in local politics.

'Me hassling 10 of my friends is not systemic change, you know?' Hutt said.

Accountant Meleane Burgess, 40, is looking for change, too. Two thirds of Hamilton's voters didn't take part in the 2016 election.

Hamilton City Council hopeful Anna Smart, 37, says there is a perception renters can't vote.

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'If we want a vibrant Hamilton City that our children will grow in feeling inclusive, it needs to start from the community. We need to go to those people who are considered to be disengaged. We can't just leave them disengaged forever.'

Hutt, Burgess and Anna Smart, 37, the third woman to come out strongly as a new face on the council trail, represent what could turn out to be the ultimate rebuttal to accusations in 2017 Hamilton City Council was turning into a boys' club - looking to disrupt the gender, age and ethnic balance.

In this term, there are 10 men and three women on council and all but one are 40 years and older.

'You have to have people from a diverse range off backgrounds to represent an entire community,' Smart said. 'While there is obviously diversity of opinion in council, we are not seeing a lot of other representation.'

Hutt, chief executive of social enterprise electricity company For Our Good and board member of environment group Go Eco was at a 2016 local body election event in Auckland for Chloe Swarbrick and realised having someone she could relate to in politics was the key.

'This would make me so much more enthusiastic and inspired and interested in politics if I saw somebody who looked like me, sounded like me or had been through the same issues that I was dealing with and was running for mayor of Hamilton,'' Hutt said.

With Hamilton's youthful population - about half of the city's population is younger than 30 - representation is one of her key platforms with climate change and a thriving city.

She does not support online voting.

'Diversity is not something solved by one person. I'm not Māori, I'm not Pasifika, I don't have the lived experience to inform those perspectives so we need people who do.

'What I see a lot of at the moment is there is no trust in the status quo.'

Smart, a real estate agent with school aged children, said there is a startling amount of misinformation in the community about voting.

'Something that was really alarming to me was the perception that renters didn't feel like they could vote or that they were eligible to vote,' Smart said. 'They are probably more susceptible to some of the changes that are made at a council and central government level and yet they don't feel like they have a right to have a say.'

Originally from Samoa and in Hamilton for more than 20 years, Burgess said, more than ever, the city needs to represent the diversity of its people.

'Diversity is not just the colour. It's everything else. It's gender, it's race . . . When you look at the makeup of council, in terms of the representation of Hamilton which is considered one of the most diverse cities in New Zealand, that's not reflected on council,' Burgess said.

Of the 37 council candidates in the 2016 Hamilton City election, eight were women or 21 per cent - on par with the 10 to three ratio of men to women elected to govern.

Increasing the proportion candidates with diverse backgrounds is one solution but there are more steps to take.

'I have to get out early and gain their trust back,' Burgess said. 'In order for us to have our voice back and make that change, you have to come along in this journey. I can't do it alone.'