A look at four people under 30 who have put their hands up to change their cities.
Local councils can tell your favourite bar when to close, set the speed limit for driving your Toyota through the city streets, or dictate whether you can have alpacas in your backyard. They also shape the future of your city.
But most people don’t care about voting in local body elections.
Three years ago, only 41 percent of the overall population voted, compared to 57 percent in 1989. The numbers will be even lower for voters aged 18-29, based on the long term trend.
As Napier city councillor Annette Brosnan points out, there’s a “perception that council is all about old stale, pale male at the top”.
Brosnan says there needs to be more people young people like her.
Nominations for local body elections open today, with candidates across the country looking to earn a seat - and anyone can vote in the elections.
We talked to four 20-somethings running for jobs that not many care to vote for, even though they can change a city, including the 22-year-old running to be Auckland’s mayor.
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Chlöe Swarbrick
Age: 22
Running for: Mayor - Auckland City Council, standing as an independent
Why did you decide to run?
The thing which prompted me is really low engagement in local body politics. In the 2013 election in Auckland we had a 34 per cent turnout and that to me is really, really dismal when Auckland’s faced with a whole lot of issues; namely the likes of our housing crisis, homelessness, all of these woes of public transport etc. The rhetoric typically for local body elections surrounds things like rates, and I just feel like there’s a real inconsistency between that rhetoric and what people actually want and need.
How is your campaign going to work?
I have no money, so that’s probably an important consideration here. It’s predominantly going to work online, which is where the barriers to entry are super low.
The traditional media has obviously helped in terms of getting the word out, which I suppose is where my novelty in being young has helped, but it’s predominantly through submissions through my Facebook page and through my website.
You said your age is the thing that people focus on, but do you see that as an advantage?
I think in some respects it allows me to understand the issues in a different way than most of the candidates who are currently running do. I’m grounded in the issues and I’m completely aware - I’m worried about the future of this city.
I have a $43,000 student loan; I’m of the generation where it’s predicted will never be able to own a house; a lot of my peers are leaving the country because there’s greater opportunity elsewhere; I catch public transport almost everyday, and experience all of those issues. The list goes on.
In that respect my age helps, [and] I think it would be naive to say that it doesn’t offer me a different perspective.
How do you rate your chances?
I think that’s up to people to decide. I can’t give any better answer than that. The response has been overwhelming and I will take this as far as it goes.
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Josh Chandulal-McKay
Photo: Supplied
Age: 21
Running for: Whanganui District Council
What has the response been to your bid?
It’s been really positive and a lot of momentum has been generated out of the last week since I announced. I had a really good article published by the local newspaper and I’ve had a number of other local candidates both mayoral and for the council contact me wanting to meet and talk over my plans and offer me advice for the campaign. It’s been quite overwhelming actually.
Will you be hoping to engage young people in the voting process?
I don’t have a specific plan to go out and campaign for the youth vote.
The attitude that I’m taking there is that people just see that I’m young; I’m hoping that will be a way that we can increase voter turnout amongst young people, because enrollment among young people in Whanganui is quite high. It’s just the actual voter turnout that’s low, so getting that moving would be really really good.
How do you rate your chances?
At this stage I’m cautiously optimistic based on the feedback I’ve received. I acknowledge that [my] name recognition is relatively low and there are a lot of other candidates as well, but I think that my age, and also what I’m campaigning on, does create a contrast from the other candidates. I’m hoping that will set me up well.
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Aleisha Rutherford
Age: 26
Running for: Elected in 2013, second time running for Palmerston North City Council
How did you get involved with council in in the first place?
Photo: Supplied
When I was 22, I was working as a youth worker and our funding got cut for our service which was a national service but with local funding.
I kind of just started looking around how decisions were made and who was behind these decisions and obviously realised it was central government and central government felt a little bit far away for me at that point.
I looked at the local decision-making aspect within local government and then I looked at who was representing the community [at the time] and who was making these decisions. I never felt there was somebody who represented me and my demographic, or my peers and my situation.
What do you think you have learnt along the way?
In terms of just the local government processes, I didn’t really understand how slow local government moves.
I also have learnt a lot more about how to achieve things as a whole across the country because there’s a bit of friction between local and central government. Central government puts things on local government [and] local government fights back, so you see that happening as well. You’ve got to learn to be strategic about what you want to achieve.
Do you see your age an advantage?
I think there’s a bit of a quirk in having young people in positions of, I don’t want to say power, but do you know what I mean? It is unusual to see young people in these sorts of positions, so you do possibly get a little bit more air time.
People are interested in what young people have to say, and I get a lot of feedback that people think it’s impressive that I stood [for council]. I don’t necessarily think it’s impressive, I just think that it’s not common, which is probably why people seem to be more impressed.
So, it has it advantages but, similarly, it’s got disadvantages. People also think that my voice is not as credible as another member, when in actual fact I got elected at the same time they did, or I got elected on possibly more votes than they did.
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Annette Bronsnan
Photo: Supplied
Age: 28
Running for: Elected in 2013, second time running for Napier City Council
Do you think that there are any challenges for young people running for council?
Always. One of the things that I think is really important is that we’re not a static line society so we shouldn’t have static line representation. I think it’s really important to have a mixed demographic on council [like] my age group.
When I stood for council, I hadn’t had any children. I was young, married to my husband and [we were] first home buyers. Those are all people who are part of the rating base of a city: young families, young couples, first home buyers. It’s really important for them to be represented on council.
In my last term I had a son, so now I feel like I’ve got another string to the bow in understanding those young families and facilities that the council can provide in that space.
It’s a demographic [that should be] represented and the challenge is that you’re quite often the only one in that demographic. But I mean, my council is really good, they respect that and almost look to you for that view.
Where there any difficult moments for you?
When I was door knocking, I had a few people say “Oh, you’re far too young to be standing on council”. I think that is just that perception that council is all about old stale, pale male at the top. But we overcome that. Obviously you show that through the work that you do, if and once you’re elected, you show your value.
Cover image: Dexter Murray
