My Account
Hoardings are up and campaigning has begun in earnest for the local body elections.
Interest in representing the community in various Council roles appears to be similar to the 2019 election – there are a total of 388 nominations including 52 for councillors, and 314 for local boards. In 2019, the total number standing was 423.
On the Hibiscus Coast, you can vote for the Mayor, two Albany Ward Councillors and four Hibiscus Coast representatives on the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board. (Dairy Flat is covered by the Rodney Local Board. Its current representative on that board, Louise Johnston, is standing unopposed this election.)
There are 22 candidates for Mayor – locally Red Beach’s Gary Brown is contesting the mayoralty as an independent.
There are nine candidates for councillor in Albany Ward – incumbents Wayne Walker and John Watson (Putting People First); Sylvia Yang and Red Beach’s Jake Law (Your Community Future); Victoria Short, current Bays representative on the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board; John Davies (Communities First); and independents Tony Corbett, Callum Blair and Alezix Heneti.
On the Hibiscus and Bays local board it’s shaping up to be an interesting contest, with 15 people putting their names forward for the four spaces available.
Current local board members who are standing are chair Gary Brown and members Andy Dunn and Leanne Willis – Sam Mills has also joined their Coast People ticket.
Another team, called Team Coast, has formed. It is made up of Red Beach’s Jake Law (who is also standing for Council), husband and wife Kereama and Trish Nathan of Te Herenga Waka o Ōrewa community marae and Lia Shelford-Toopi.
In addition, there is John Davies, who is also standing for Council (Communities First); as well as independents Donna Patterson, Sion Stavrovski, Nancy Alison Stride, Ed Amon (Hibiscus Matters’ columnist), Wayne McCormick and Nicholas Mitchell.
A chance to meet some of the local candidates is being provided by Hibiscus Coast Grey Power, which is holding a public meeting on August 26 in Ōrewa. See What’s On, p31 for details.
Info (including list of candidates): voteauckland.co.nz
