Tim Macindoe tops polls, says ‘tough choices’ coming for council

Sunday, 18 February 2024

Tim Macindoe’s lead is large enough that special votes are unlikely to change the Hamilton East by-election result.

With a lead of a few thousand votes, Tim Macindoe is in pole position for the vacant seat on Hamilton City Council.

Provisional results for the Hamilton East by-election put the former National MP 3653 votes ahead of second-placed candidate Leo Liu, leaving him “grateful and quite humbled”.

He said that while special votes are still to be counted it was “unlikely that’s going to change things”.

Water metering was one issue council will have to grapple with, said incoming councillor Tim Macindoe.

So Hamilton’s likely to see a kind of switcheroo as a former National MP shifts into the council seat left vacant by Ryan Hamilton, who became a National MP in the last election.

And Macindoe’s got ambitions at local government level, having said even before the by-election was over that he’s considering a run for mayor in 2025.

He knows he’s likely be joining council at a particularly fraught time.

“There are no easy decisions to be made,” he said, citing looming issues including possible double-digit rate rises, council debt and the debate about possible water metering, something he said was “clearly a big issue”.

“We’ve got to make some tough choices.”

Macindoe said water metering was an issue “clearly we do have to look at” but that he wanted a clearer idea of Government proposals around water infrastructure.

Macindoe said he’s campaigned on “reining in council spending to address our city’s worrying deficit and debt, and focusing on delivering core services and essential infrastructure”.

“We need to know exactly what the Government is proposing.”

The potential for a 25.5% rate hike concerned him as “the burden on ratepayers is almost intolerable”, especially for low income families.

He also said that while he campaigned on reining in costs, he would not advocate a “slash and burn” policy.

Macindoe was Hamilton West MP for many years, before conceding defeat to Gaurav Sharma in 2020 (file photo).

“Throughout my campaign, I have stressed my commitment to reining in council spending to address our city’s worrying deficit and debt, and focusing on delivering core services and essential infrastructure to the high standard ratepayers and residents expect,” he said.

“I will continue to oppose further unwanted and unaffordable disruption to our city’s roads. Pet projects must be mothballed, while significant savings need to be made in order to reduce the projected 25.5% increase in our rates this year.

“That prospect is causing widespread alarm for ratepayers, especially those on low and fixed incomes, and tough decisions need to be made.

“If today’s provisional result is confirmed next week, I look forward to getting sworn in and started as soon as possible, and working constructively with all Hamilton City Council councillors and staff to tackle the significant challenges our city and ratepayers face.”

The council has put the swearing-in date as February 20 - the same day the council is due to meet to discuss reworked figures for rates rises and the like.

After Saturday’s count, Macindoe has 5858 votes, 3653 ahead of Leo Liu who has received 2205 votes, a Hamilton City Council statement said.

Overall, there were 16 candidates for the seat.

The voter return stands at 22.05%, being 12,439 votes, with special votes still to be counted.

A final result will be announced once all special votes have been validated, and will be available on Monday at hamilton.govt.nz/elections.