Outgoing activist-turned-councillor has high hopes for local government
Monday, 28 April 2025
Sophie Handford has yet to finish her undergraduate degree but is close to “graduating” after six years from the “university of council”.
“It has been such a steep learning curve but also an amazing one,” said the Kāpiti Coast district councillor who was first elected to represent the Paekākāriki-Raumati ward in 2019, aged just 18. She announced last week she would not run for a third term at this year’s local elections.
“I feel pretty comfortable with where things are at,” she told The Post, but also said there was much more to be done about the Government’s “attacks on people and planet” and “smokescreen” climate response, such as enabling coal mining and exploring offshore oil and gas.
She was discouraged about the central government’s current political climate but held high hopes for what could happen at the local level.
“I feel like it’s where we can help to find and regain some of that hope and momentum,” Handford said. “I found great satisfaction from what I’ve been able to contribute alongside my colleagues.
Handford’s first win in 2019 to become one of the country’s youngest elected representatives was on the back of being the national coordinator of New Zealand’s inaugural School Strike 4 Climate rally, which she started with a group of friends from Kāpiti College at Year 13.
She believed things had improved for young people in local government since her first election which coincided with a surge of young people elected to local councils at different parts of the country in 2019.
More younger councillors nationwide meant they could learn from each other. Her Kāpiti Coast council colleagues believed in her, including incumbent mayor Janet Holborow who appointed her a committee chairperson in 2022.
She had been talking with some high school students who could be running for a local community board seat in October.
“There were obviously moments where I have been kind of treated differently or talked to differently based off of my age or what people assume of me, because I am a young woman and I came into this straight out of high school,” Handford said.
“I think that our voices as young people are so important and if we want our councils to be truly representative of our diverse communities, we need to create space for that energy.”
But Handford admitted she wasn’t “100%” sure of what the future holds. She currently does some work for a progressive think tank and still has a degree in political communications and international relations to finish.
Would she be running at the next general election? “I’m still scoping out all the different avenues to make impact,” Handford said. “If come next year I decide that being in Parliament is a way that could be achieved, then sure.
“But at the moment, I’m feeling a bit despondent about the kind of place that is and feeling inspired by the kind of resilience and hope that can be found in community-led mahi.”