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If the number of candidates standing for election to Auckland Council or Rodney Local Board is any indicator of voter dissatisfaction, there are a quite lot of unhappy campers out there this year.
In 2019, Councillor Greg Sayers was returned unopposed for the Rodney Ward seat, Colin Smith had no contenders for the Wellsford seat on the local board and five people stood for the three Warkworth board places.
This year, there are five candidates vying to become councillor, eight people standing for the local board in Warkworth and a head-to-head in Wellsford. One candidate is even having a go at both the council seat and a place on the local board.
While all the Rodney candidates vary in age, background and policies, and are split pretty evenly by gender, none identify as Maori.
As could be expected, the state of local roading is a hot topic for most candidates, with several singling it out as the most important issue facing Rodney. Other frequently occurring issues include development pressures, population growth, rates (targeted and otherwise), and the need for more funds to be spent in Rodney, rather than the CBD.
Candidates’ views on all this and much more besides can be perused over the following pages, or on each candidate’s own website or Facebook page – though not everyone is easy to track down online.
Politics, even at a local level, is not for the fainthearted and unfortunately it doesn’t take much for passionate beliefs to translate into mud-slinging. In 2019, it was all about who, if any, were controlling and blocking community Facebook pages and users. This year, there has been a concerted spate of bickering and name-calling, not to mention accusations of bullying and secret coalitions, in and around the Wellsford subdivision.
This is the first local election since the pandemic and the subsequent rise of conspiracy theorists and extremists, many of whom are thought to be standing for election in October. While all candidates in this feature have been asked to disclose any affiliations they might have, voters are urged to do as much of their own research as they can before voting. On this topic, Mahurangi Matters has been contacted by several people over the views of one Rodney candidate, claiming that Anne Perratt has distributed extremist and Voices For Freedom promotional material via local leaflet drops and email. When contacted by Mahurangi Matters about concerns that she might be a Voices For Freedom candidate posing as an independent, Perratt reiterated several times that she was non-political and independent.
Asked if she had ever delivered Voices For Freedom literature into local letterboxes, she said initially she could not remember, but later said she had not. She said she received emails from many and varied sources “to stay informed”, and when asked if she had forwarded Voices For Freedom emails to her wider networks said, “I have forwarded NZTU; Brash, Bassett, Hide; NZ Initiative; VfF (Voices For Freedom); Fact; NZCPR; Stuff; NZ Herald and other interesting commentary”.
Meanwhile, in Kaipara, there are seven candidates standing for three places in the Kaiwaka-Mangawhai ward, four for the two slots in Otamatea and five for the new Te Moananui o Kaipara Maori ward seat. All were approached for this feature, except for two – Misty Sansom in Kaiwaka-Mangawhai and Philip Johnson in the Maori ward – for whom Mahurangi Matters was unable to find a contact email or phone number.
Four candidates failed to respond to our request for information and photos – Jonathan Larsen (sitting councillor) and Rachael Williams in Kaiwaka-Mangawhai; Ron Manderson in Otamatea; and Henry Holyoake and Brenden Nathan for Te Moananui o Kaipara Maori ward.
All candidates featured on the following pages are presented in random order – names were pulled from a hat.
Related stories
Mayoral candidates
Rodney ward candidates
Warkworth/Wellsford Local Board candidates
Kaipara-Mangawhai ward candidates/Otamatea ward candidates/Maori ward candidates
