2025 Elections: Your candidates in Christchurch
Wednesday, 27 August 2025
More than 100 candidates have put their hand up to represent the people of Greater Christchurch. The Press is here to help you get started on narrowing your picks. Scroll down to read answers from candidates in Christchurch.
The nominations have closed, the fliers are in your letterboxes and neighbourhood fences have become a real-time game of Guess Who?
The local body election season has begun. Voters have two more weeks to get to know the candidates before early voting begins on September 9 and ends noon, October 11.
In Greater Christchurch, that totals 105 candidates across three territorial authorities - Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri - vying for a total of 39 positions.
The Press asked hopeful mayors and councillors a series of questions to give you a head start on identifying which candidates align with your values and are worth learning more about, and summarised the results for a temperature gauge on what your future councillors want to fight for.
Candidates for Environment Canterbury were also surveyed, with the results to be published next week.
Christchurch City Council
A total of 40 out of 47 Christchurch City Council candidates responded to The Press’s survey. To read what candidates said in their own words, see the end of this article.
All but one current Christchurch City Council member wants to keep a place at the table. The three councillors from Waimairi (Sam MacDonald), Hornby (Mark Peters) and Harewood (Aaron Keown) are running unopposed, guaranteeing their win.
That leaves 14 positions up for grabs and two wards - Heathcote and Fendalton - where new blood is guaranteed.
First-term mayor Phil Mauger wants another go at the head of the table, while Heathcote councillor Sara Templeton is running a mayor-only campaign against him. They are expected to clean up most votes for mayor between the two of them, but there are six other candidates.
Lower rates and better financial management was the single most important issue facing Christchurch according to about a third of candidates, with the rest more likely to say infrastructure investment and city planning was most important.
Some 16 candidates support a cap on rates (the National-led coalition government is expected to propose one by the end of this year) compared to 15 who didn’t (nine were undecided or their answer was unclear), with all sides generally saying they wanted rates to be lower.
Those against a cap were generally opposed on principle to “Wellington” giving them orders. Cap supporters believed it would keep the council financially prudent.
Only the unopposed Waimairi councillor Sam MacDonald was bold enough to give a clear “yes” to supporting asset sales. Riccarton candidate Sam Yau joined him in a yes, but on the condition the new ownership structure was approved by the majority of ratepayers, not just elected members.
A total of 21 candidates said no to either full or partial asset sales and 17% said it was a priority to resist asset sales. Twelve were open to the idea of a partial sale, should the case be convincing enough, with some specifying they wouldn’t be comfortable with owning less than 51%.
Mauger said he supported public ownership and singled out Lyttelton Port Company, saying he would not support a full or partial sale.
Candidates were asked to share three priorities, with a good portion of them referencing getting back to “basics”, focusing on “core infrastructure” and improving accountability and trust.
About half of candidates say they will prioritise transport issues, whether combating speed bumps (20%), traffic flow/congestion (12%) or improving public transport (12%).
Only one candidates brought up cycleway infrastructure as a priority issue or, in the case of Coastal’s Jo Zervos, an area where funding should be cut.
Instead, when asked what one thing the council should cut funding from, a variation of speed bump, hump or raised platform was the single most common response, followed by largely undefined “vanity projects” and costs imposed by central government.
Nearly a third of respondents did not say which one thing they would cut funding from.
Asked how much a priority climate action was on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being it was their highest priority), all but two candidates gave a rating of 5 or more. The average rating was 7.4.
Mayoral candidate Thomas Healey gave it a 1 and Zervos ranked it at 3. Central’s Raf Manji and Riccarton’s Debbie Mora did not answer.
Candidates were also asked to give a 1 to 10 ranking for how happy they were with council spending on cycleway infrastructure and roads and footpaths, 10 indicating they wanted significantly more funding.
While the feeling on cycleway investment was mixed, most generally agreed more could be invested in roads and footpaths.
Most city council candidates are male (67%) and identify as Pākehā, NZ European or New Zealander (over 75%). The average age of a candidate is 49, with the youngest 21 and the oldest 71. The youngest female candidate is 45.
Three candidates whakapapa Māori (making 7%, compared to 11% of the Christchurch city population according to the latest Census) and one is Sāmoan. One candidate has both Irish and Indian ethnicity and another is of Chinese descent - five more candidates of Asian descent would be needed to be representative of Christchurch.
Note: Candidates for Hornby (Mark Peters) and Harewood (Aaron Keown), who are unopposed, did not complete the survey.