What is really stupid about this is that the Mayor is always given honorary membership of the Auckland Club, which automatically gives you reciprocal rights to the Northern Club.  So the perk wasn’t even needed.

First he details how City Vision thought they could score some points by trying to perkbust something insignificant but symbolic such as the Koru Club cards for Councillors. They probably thought the C&R majority would resist. but not only did C&R vote to get rid of them, they commissioned a report on how the perk came about – and it was Hubbard and Hucker who introduced them in the last term. Wonderful own goal!

The other issue is more important, and that is the Council’s role in housing. I think Aaron has summed it up succintly:

C&R believes in trying to keep rates affordable for the many, rather than subsidising 100 houses for a few. In some ways, what we had last night was a clear contrast in ideology between the left and the right, so no surprises the passions were a little inflamed at times.

They were elected with a very clear mandate to reduce the amount rates have been rising by, and housing is very clearly a core responsibility of central Government. Local Government’s role is to set the rules around housing, not to be a landlord in my opinion.

Otherwise why not also have ratepayers start to fund local schools and hospitals also?

Now some could argue welfare, health and housing should not just be a central government concern, but a shared responsibility. That is a legitimate view. But the problem I have with that is it lessens accountability.

The more local government intervenes in the areas that traditionally are central Government’s the more it lets central Government off the hook. Because they can then blame local authorities for not contributing enough to schools or hospitals or houses in their area.

They are calling on the Auckland Santa Parade organisers to allow the Falun Gong “Divine Land Marching Band” to take part.

I totally agree. I think it is disgraceful that we self censor ourselves to keep the PRC happy.

Now I wondered what the views of the C&R Councillors would be, especially as one of their own (Michael Barnett) is the Parade Chairman.

I was pleased to find that Aaron Bhatnagar had actually beaten City Vision to it, by blogging on Tuesday that he disagreed with his colleague, and explaining why.

In fact I have to give big kudos to Aaron for keeping the blog going, as a Councillor.  It’s a great way to be accountable, and also to educate people on the issues.  With the election itself over, it’s a great insight into the issues facing the Council – such as this post on what it means to keep rates increases down to inflation.

Also I did have a chuckle at his post showing off the billboards that the John Banks campaign thought up, but didn’t use.

Promising “a massive cultural change”, he said staff were to “listen, ring back, help ratepayers, not hinder, look for solutions, not arguments”.

They were never to “insult, infuriate or demonise” ratepayers. Picking on the poor and disabled was not acceptable.

Apologies had to be made for stupid behaviour and mistakes – “and there have been plenty” – approvals should be sought rather than hearings, lawyers should be avoided, and plain English or Maori used where possible to inject “some special flavour” of the district.

Wayne Brown for King I say!

But then it gets even better:

Mr Brown, the outgoing Auckland District Health Board chairman and a Mangonui resident, scrapped all committees other than “a much-needed” audit and finance panel, which did not exist under the last council.

He scrapped every single committee!!  I wonder if in a year people will wonder what they ever did!

And then he looks at cost savings:

All council costs are to be reviewed to ensure they’re at least as low as in the private sector. All council meetings, both official and staff only, will be questioned for their “value” and more use made of “modern communications” to reduce staff, councillor and public travel.

Far North may end up with a Council which cuts rates!

After Wayne has had two terms up North, we should rotate him around the country!

One thing which may help improve turnout is to allow voting via the Internet, as Peter Griffin advocates. I certainly support this and it should be used in 2010.  Those who raise security concerns should look at the lack of authentication with current voting.  No ID proof needed to enrol.  No proof of ID to cast a vote in person.  No authentication for postal votes.

But I think the problem goes far beyond how people vote.  I think it comes back to basic questions about whether people really make informed choices for local body elections, as oppossed to merely going off name recognition.

I probably follow the politics of my local city council, regional council and health board more than 99% of the population.  Yet even I often am having to vote for people on the basis of how well written their 200 word official blurb is, or on a faint impression of them.

So let us look at a system which does work fairly well – electing Parliament.  Why does that get a far higher turnout and reflect a better informed choice than local body? Well, partly because one is making far simpler choices, on far more information.

Basically we get asked only two things every three years.  Which party do we prefer, and which which person do we want as our local MP?  Now over the three year cycle there will have been a political story every day on TV, and two or three in the print press.  Even the most turned off from politics person gets enough saturation to be able to have a party preference.  They can use this as a candidate preference also.

Now look at what we ask for local elections?  We expect people to choose not only a Mayor, but select or rank three city councillors, half a dozen regional councillors and half a dozen DHB members. Hell, if I struggle on making informed choices for all of these, no wonder so many don’t vote.

So it occurs to me the trick is to keep it simple stupid. Have smaller wards with just one Councillor per ward.  People are asked to simply select the person they most want as their local body representative.  That will be a lot easier for voters – most people have at least one candidate they know enough about to select.  It also means the local Councillor is the sole representative for that area – so people know who to go to for assistance or issues.

Now there would be two ways to do this.  Using Wellington as an example, one would split the five City wards into say 15 wards and each suburb would effectively be a ward.  So I would vote for one Thorndon Councillor instead of three Lampton Councillors.

Another way would be to merge regional and local councils, and if you had one Council for Greater Wellington, then you’d have five wards in Wellington City, two or three in the Hutt, a couple in Mana, one in Kapiti and one in Wairarapa.

I’d abolish DHB elections.  They’re a sham and just about deluding the public into thinking there is local control, when in fact all major decisions are made by central Government.  DHBs are just fall guys.

So in my ideal system, you’d be asked to make just two selections.  Who do you want as Mayor of Wellington and who do you want as the local Councillor for Thorndon/Lampton? If that is all people are asked, I predict you’ll get a significantly higher voter turnout, and just as importantly far more informed decisions.

One has to feel a bit sorry for Ian Buchanan who lost the job to Fran.  he had been from all accounts a decent enough Chair, but the reality is that Fran is a big hitter who can achieve more due to her experience and networks.

Fran is committed to making Transmission Gully happen on timetable, not that it has been agreed to by the major parties.  This is vitally important as any delays increase costs massively which then cause the viability of the decision to proceed to be questioned.

Also good to see Ian McKinnon elected Deputy Mayor of Wellington last night.  Ian is a very decent and dedicated Councillor, who will perform the role well.  He is also a potential replacement for Kerry when she retires at the end of this term.

If anyone has details of what the vote for Deputy Mayor was, I’d be interested to know that.  I understand it was fairly close.

Kerry Predergast got 34.9% of first preferences.  Now thatmay not sound much but in second place was Ray Ahipene-Mercer who had a mere 13.5%.  Now what happens as the losing candidates drop off.

When Nick Kelly dropped out, the biggest beneficiary was Helene Ritchie who got 12.3% of his 988 votes, along with Carl Gifford. John McGarth dropped out on the 5th iteration and his 3,473 votes went most of all to Kerry who got 21.7% of them with Goulden picking up 14.% and then Ahipene-Mercer 10.4%.  That is quite logical – mainly CR vote staying on the CR.

Goulden drops out 6th and his support splits almost four qays equally. Kerry gets 15.5%, Ahipene-Mercer 14.9%, Ruben 14.8% and Papperell 14.,5%.  10% went to Ricthie and 31% went nowhere (no further candidates ranked).

Ruben drops out 7th and Pepperll picks up 23.7% followed by Ritchie on 16.6%.  Kerry gets only 11.1%.  Again very logical.

Finally Ritchie falls out and 23.4% of her vote goes to Pepperll, 19.8% to Ahipene-Mercer and 17.7% to Kerry. 39% exhausted their ballots at this stage.

In the final iteration Kerry is left with 51.0% of the remaining vote, Ahipene-Mercer with 25.4% and Peperell with 23.6%.  The vote share for Kerry Predergast and Ray Ahipene-Mercer at each iteration was:

1. 34.9% to 13.5%
2. 35.2% to 13.8%
3. 35.6% to 14.1%
4. 26.2% to 14.5%
5. 37.0% to 15.3%
6. 39.3% to 16.3%
7. 41.7% to 18.1%
8. 44.7% to 20.5%
9. 51.0% to 25.4%

I don’t have the data on what would have happened if they needed a 10th iteration, with Peperell dropping out also.  But looking at the other iterations, I think it would have been at least a 60% to 40% result.

I agree that they should not have voted on an issue like this so close to the election. In fact they voted after most people had voted, which makes it worse.

I wonder if a solution is to dissolve Councils once nominations for the elections close?

I mean the country survives very well with no Parliament for a couple of months.  I am sure a city can survive being in caretaker mode for six weeks or so.

Well, as a voter in the Kapiti Coast District, I can say that I had absolutely no idea Jenny Rowan was an ‘out’ lesbian. Had I known she was a lesbian, I would not have put her down at number 2 on my voting form. As she never campaigned using “vote for me, I’m a lesbian”, I wouldn’t be surprised if many other Kapiti voters also had no idea. I also would not be surprised if she only lasts one term.

Well it is quite correct that Rowan did not campaign on the basis you should vote for her as she is a lesbian.  To quote the Herald on Sunday:

Openly lesbian, though determinedly not campaigning as such _ “it’s got nothing to do with me being mayor”

Now I think this is a commendable attitude. I didn’t vote for Kerry Prendergast because she is heterosexual, and I think it is great to have the sort of society where a candidate’s sexual orientation is about as interesting as their hair colour.

Not that it would have been hard for Lucyna to find out Jenny was a lesbian.  A quick Google search on her name has a reference in the top five hits.  Also on Jenny’s website she mentions her partner is Jools.

So while she did not campaign on it, she certainly didn’t hide it. What more does Lucyna want?  For her to warn people with a flashing homo alert badge at public meetings? Does she really believe that her sexual orientation alone is enough to get her thrown out of office after one term – regardless of how well she performs the job?

Later on, Lucyna makes a comment that:

Anyone who is sexually depraved is less likely to be able to make decisions for the good of all.

Now Lucyna obviously believes this and I don’t think there is much point debating a belief like that, but really to apply it as a litmus test where you won’t consider them at all, regardless of all the other qualities they may have?  Isn’t that rather umm
extreme?

Now I had done the sensible thing and booked a room at the hotel, so I could crash easily and get up in time for my radio interview at 10 am. But sadly common sense went out the window when a bit after midnight someone suggested we head into town to do Karaoke. Yes, never a good idea. So we headed into town, and then ended up in a friend’s apartment at the Viaduct. Now this apartment was superbly located – above Soul Bar – so great view of the viaduct and beyond.

Eventually my survival instinct kicked in and I headed back to Grey Lynn. Not sure what time it was. Got woken up at 9.15 am (luckily) by Cameron needing to grab his gear he’d left in the room. Realise I have 30 minutes to get to Radio NZ. This is no mean feat. Especially as my condition could well be described as less than 100%. In fact somewhere around 10%.

On the way ring up a friend who may have a stat or two I want on the public service. She informs me I managed to ring her during the final minute of the World Cup semi-final. Whoops.

Anyway it was great to be such a fun election night party. To be honest not had a decent election night party since 1990. In 1993 it was pretty sober as office was almost lost. In 1996 Winston won (the real party came two months later when he made his choice). And 1999, 2002 and 2005 speak for themselves. 2002 especially was bloody miserable.

So while it is only local body politics, was nice to have some good results to celebrate.  Some photos from the bashes, taken on Whale Oil’s new iPhone.  I tell you, they are great (unlike the quality of the photos) and I can’t wait to get one!

Newly elected Crs Goldsmith and Bhatnagar with MP Jackie Blue.

Banks getting an update.

Incidentally his win, dents my record for predictions as back in February 2006 I said “Any possibility John Banks had of becoming Auckland Mayor again, has I suspect died with his idiotic comment on his talkback show that the Robert Hewitt survivial story is a hoax.” To be fair to me I had changed my mind by the end of 2006 as the Hubbard and City Vision fiascos continued.

Cameron Brewer and myself.  I think at one point in the evening I told Cameron that before he became Newmarket Business Association CEO, I wouldn’t have known if Newmarket even had a corner dairy

Re-elected Manukau Councillor Jami-Lee Ross and his partner who also got elected onto a community board.

Herald on Sunday Gossip Editor Rachel Glucina was a good sport and agreed to pose for a photo. She says she is a keen blog reader!

Now the vote totals don’t mean much, because of the way votes are redistributed, but it does look like a much larger victory for Kerry than last time – she avoided going into a final two person run-off, as in the 9th iteration she had more than Ahipene-Mercer and Pepperell combined.

John McGrath did very badly, being the first serious candidate to drop off. Rob Goulden also did far worse than last time.

The big winner, apart from Kerry, is Ray Ahipene-Mercer who came second.  He will be a major contender next time and he also may become Deputy Mayor as Alick Shaw lost his seat.

On Council, the results are:

Northern – Hayley Wain will be delighted by topping the poll, with Helene Ritchie a distant second.  Former Councillor Ngaire Best got re-elected, but at the expense of her former colleague Robert Armstrong.

Onslow-Western – I’m delighted Jo Coughlan got elected, and even better she replaced Jack Ruben.  Andy Foster and John Morrison got re-elected, which is no surprise.

Lambton – The big news is that Deputy Mayor Alick Shaw lost his seat, and lost heavily.  Fairly harsh for a hard working and dedicated guy, but I suspect what has happened is that despite being on the Labour ticket he was not supported by many on the left, while the Labour affiliation also turned off those on the right. He may have done better as an Independent.  Iona Pannett won, and I am not really surprised.  She did campaign very hard and even door knocked on my door.  Her left wing vote will be somewhat balanced by Jo Coughlan replacing Jack Ruben, so overall balance on Council not changed much.

Eastern – The incumbents of Ray Ahipene-Mercer, Rob Goulden and Leonie Hill all returned as expected.  Goulden was third which will concern him as he stood for Mayor also.

Southern – Again incumbents returned in Celia Wade-Brown and Bryan Pepperell.  No-one else came close.

Overall the Council may be less divided than previously.  The “disruptors” have not done very well, and lost one of their number.  Also Alick could be a bit inflammatory himself, responding to them, so his departure may lessen temperatures.  But on the other hand if this is Kerry’s last term expect some posturing as people seek profile so they can win next time.

However current Labour MP Di Yates failed to even win one of the six Council seats in the Hamilton East ward. How embarrassing!!

Stuff has a useful summary of results and fuller results.

Good to see Lawrence Yule easily back in Hastings. He won by around 2:1.

David Ogden has benefited from vote splitting in Hutt City and won re-election with 7,137 just ahead of Ray Wallace.  Ken Laban only a bit further back than that.  I actually thought Laban wouldn’t be a bad choice, even though he’s Labour.

Jenny Rowan has won Kapita with Alan Milne retiring.

Former ACT MP Penny Webster has won the Mayoralty of Rodney.  Well done Penny.

Michael Laws has a pretty good 3,000 margin in his re-election, and over 50% of the vote.  His ticket though doesn’t seem to have a majority.

For Wellington Regional Council, the likely winners for Wellington City ward are Chris Laidlaw, Fran Wilde, Judith Aitken, Sally Baber and Paul Bruce.

Wellington City results not yet known, again thanks to STV.

1.43 – Parker 46,000, Wood 31,000. So much for a close race.

Results now online.

Jo Giles (former ACT) also got 14,000 votes for Mayor so CR Mayoral candidates did very well. The street cleaner got a massive 4,500 votes. Superb. Kyle Chapman got 673 and is third to last. Pity.

Tony Milne missed out on Council but got a creditable third place just 700 votes back. People say he campaigned very hard.

The Councillors are:

Independent – 7
Independent Citizens – 3
Chch 2021 – 2

Most of the independents are moderate to centre right, so not a good result for Christchurch 2021.

The Buller Mayor, Pat O’Dea has been defeated. He has been Mayor forever – he was Mayor when I was at university with his nephew 20 years ago!

Shadbolt has easily won again in Invercargill. No Dunedin result yet thanks to STV, but Peter Chin will win I am sure.

What’s interesting is that the five major cities – Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin are now headed by Mayors who are not from the left. In fact three of them are former National MPs or candidates!

Just looking at Canterbury Regional Council results. The Labour aligned Christchurch 2021 ticket won only two out of the eight positions they contested.  This may make it difficult for Kerry Burke to hang on as Chair.

Also in Far North Wayne Brown has crushed incumbent Yvonne Sharp with 8,894 to her 4,674.

Incumbent Mayors who had presided over spend and tax/rate binges are being punished big time.

In Manukau Len Brown has won as expected. A massive margin of 14,000 over Dick Quax. Arthur Anae did better than many expected to come third with 10,000. Willie Jackon right back in 4th on 7,400.

Up North, Whangarei’s Mayor Yvonne Sharp has also been thrashed by former Mayor Stan Semenoff who got 11,651 to her 5,951.

As expected Bob Harvey won in Waitakere, but Tamihere got around 75% of what Harvey got.  I suspect if Tamihere had declared several months earlier, it would have been significantly closer.  It’s a pretty good result for Tamihere all things considered.

Also C&R won all seats in Hobson and Avondale-Roskill.

1.02 – City Vision and allies are being routed. With some results to come in, C&R and Banks already have a majority on Council. 12/20 from our initial results.

1.09 – Ward results are C&R have 2/2 in Eastern Bays, 4/4 in Avondale-Roskill, 3/3 Hobson, 1 in Tamaki (Sam) and 1 in Western Bays. None in Eden-Albert due to vote splitting.

On ARC, C&R have won 3/4 in Akl City, Christine Rankin has won in North Shore.

1.12 – Banks 44,085, Hubbard 33,786, Crow 4,948, Hinchliff 4,956, Swney 10,169.

1.14 – results now online.

1.17 – Faye Storer from Waiheke Island has lost by 11 votes to Denise Roche

5.25 – the C&R function is now over, and at 7 pm the Banks function starts.   As one can expect everyone is delighted, or stronger.  No-one expected the left would be reduced to five seats on Council.  Also the fact that even Mike Lee just held on to his ARC seat, and was the bottom polling Regional Councillor in his ward.  It will be interesting to see if he will be able to hold onto the Chairmanship over Michael Barnett who won far more votes than him in their ward.

Lots of thank you speeches from various people.   Aaron Bhatnagar held out for special praise for all his work both on the strategy, but also by personally topping Hobson Ward.

If I’ve missed any out, feel free to add them in as comments.

Waitakere: Herald Digipoll has Bob Harvey on 49% and John Tamihere on 32%

Auckland: Herald Digipoll has John Banks on 44% and Dick Hubbard on 35%

North Shore: Herald Digipoll has George Wood on 63% and Andrew Williams on 15%

Manukau: Herald Digipoll has Len Brown on 29%, Dick Quax 22% and Willie Jackson 16%

Hamilton: Waikato Times/Versus has Bob Simcock on 24% and then Roger Hennebry on 7%.

Christchurch: A Press/Opinions poll has Bob Parker on 42% and Megan Woods on 24%..

Far North: A Northern Advocate/Curia poll found a tight race with 34% for challenge Wayne Brown and 28% for Mayor Yvonne Sharp.

Whangarei: A Northern Advocate/Curia poll has former Mayor Stan Semenoff on 35% and Mayor Pamela Peters trailing on 19%.

South Taranaki: A Western Institute of Technology poll has Bryan Vickery on 10% and Steve Pivac on 9%.

Wanganui: A Wanganui Chronicle/Curia poll found 46% support for Mayor Michael Laws and 28% for John Martin.

Manawatu: A Manawatu Standard/Versus poll has Mayor Heather Tanguay on 38% and Jono Naylor on 30%.

Nelson: Nelson Mail has Kerry Marshall on 18% and 16%

Tasman: Nelson Mail has Richard Kempthorne on 32% incumbent John Hurley on 29%

Dunedin: A Curia poll found Mayor Peter Chin looking to be easily re-elected..

Dean is right, and also (perhaps unwittingly) provides the rationale for the old 90 day period for central Government elections.

Traditionally, in the last 90 days, you:

• stop all Government advertising programmes (and Govt goes into caretaker mode almost)
• Parliamentary advertising stops except the absolutely banal such as electorate office hours
• party spending limits kick in

If you get rid of the 90 day period, then you are in a weaker position to say hey that government advertising campaign shouldn’t be happening. Because it is silly to suggest there can be no govt advertising all election year, but it is quite reasonable to restrict it in the lead up to an election.

Most of the major races have now had polls published.  Yet to see anything for Christchurch or Wellington though.  Have I missed them or has there been nothing?