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October 11, 2025 3 mins

So, guess what - according to Local Government NZ, voter turnout around the country for the local body elections has been dismal. Surprised?

On Friday afternoon, 983,466 votes had been received around the country, which represented 28.49 percent of all eligible votes. That's under 30 percent. Blimey.  

As of Friday, our biggest city, and one with a multitude of issues apparently, had the lowest voting percentage of 21.8 percent, followed by Hamilton City with 22.98 percent and Porirua City with 25.11 percent.

Council Governance and Engagement general manager Lou-Ann Ballantyne encouraged people to vote if they hadn’t already. She reminded us that if you don’t vote, you’re letting someone else choose who represents you. Which is true. Or as Ray Chung so eloquently put it after his defeat in the Wellington mayoralty race: “This is your decision. Live with it.”

But we still don’t seem to care.  

By the end of Saturday, the overall percentage of voting around the country was 32.65 percent of eligible voters. Rural communities were much more engaged with 43.6 percent voting, provincial came in next at 38.3 percent, followed by metro results of 28.8 percent.

We don't have final data yet, but the stats tell us voting turnout in Auckland is on track to be the lowest in the city's history. 

So, what’s wrong with us? I thought most home owners cared about the increase in rates, our rubbish collections, the cost of consents, the state of speed limits on our local roads, the water prices. People always seem to have an opinion on their council and how well or how badly they’re performing. Apparently we’ve never been more disappointed in our councils.  

So why don’t people tick a couple of boxes, let democracy do the talking, and tell our councils what we want?  

Maybe it’s because people complain about council but also appreciate many of the services they offer communities. They cancel each other out. The status quo is ok. Apathy rules.  

But there’s also a lack of key challenges. Where was another strong candidate to challenge Wayne Brown, or Andrew Little?  

There’s also a lack of candidates. Two mayors will be elected unopposed and around 200 candidates were elected by default.

And then there’s the lack of easily accessible information on candidates - their values, and more importantly their vision. Not everyone has the time to get to a candidate meeting. Why is it so hard to find out how a current councillor or mayor has voted on issues throughout a term? Too many people are making decisions based on terrible photos in lacklustre voting booklets.  

And then there’s the reality that it’s all just a bit boring. Candidates generally campaign on the same things - keeping rates low, reducing excessive spending, maintaining infrastructure and making their city or region an affordable place to live. It’s all well-worn and hardly gripping stuff, and it’s difficult to differentiate between candidates, unless they’re wearing a silly hat.  

Which is all a terrible shame. Decisions councils make affect our lives daily in many ways. We need to change the voting system, postal voting isn't working,  and attract better leadership to these thankless roles. We need to stomp out abuse and harassment, pay more - and then hopefully more smart, reasonable people will step up.  

Perhaps then we will get off our butts and vote. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks'b So Guess what.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
According to Local Government New Zealand, voter turn out around
the country for the local body elections has been dismal. Surprised.
On Friday afternoon, nine hundred and eighty three four hundred
and sixty six votes had been received around the country
and that represented about twenty eight point four nine percent
of all eligible votes. That's under thirty percent. Blimey. As

(00:37):
of Friday, our biggest city and one with a multitude
of issues, apparently had the lowest voting percentage of twenty
one point eight percent, followed by Hamilton City on twenty
two point nine eight and pottow a city with twenty
five point eleven percent. Council Governance and Engagement General Manager
Leuann Valentine she encouraged people to vote if they hadn't already.

(00:57):
She reminded us that if you don't vote, you're letting
someone else choose who represents you. Which is true or
is Ray Cheung so eloquantly put it after his defeat
in the Wellington marialty race, this is your decision. Live
with it. But we still don't seem to care. By
the end of Saturday, the overall percentage of voting around
the country was around thirty two point sixty five of

(01:19):
eligible voters. Rural communities were much more engaged, with forty
three point six percent voting. Provincial came in next thirty
eight point three, followed by Metro results of twenty eight
point eight percent, once again under thirty percent. We don't
have the final Darty yet, but the stats tell us
voting turn out in Auckland is on track to be

(01:40):
the lowest in its history. So what's wrong with us?
I thought most homeowners cared about the increase in rates,
our rubbish collections, the cost of consents, the state of
speed limits on our local roads, the water prices. People
always seem to have an opinion on their council and
how well or badly they're performing. Apparently, we've never been

(02:01):
more disappointed in our councils. So why don't people take
a couple of boxes to Chrissy, do the talking and
tell our councils what we want. Maybe it's because people
complain about council but also appreciate many of the services
they offer. They kind of cancelte each other out. The
state is quo as okay apathy rules, But there's also

(02:22):
a lack of key challenges. Where was another strong candidate
to challenge Wayne Brown or Andrew Little. There's also a
lack of candidates. Two mayors will be elected unopposed, and
around two hundred candidates were elected by default. And then
it's a lack of easily accessible information on these candidates,
their values and more importantly, their vision. Not everyone has

(02:45):
the time to get to a candidate meeting. Why is
it so hard to find out how a current councilor
or mayor has voted on a shoe strata term? Too
many people are making decisions based on terrible photos in
lacklust of voting booklets. And then there's the reality of
it all. It's just a bit boring. Candidates generally campaign
on the same things, keeping rates low, reducing access, suspending

(03:07):
maintaining infrastructure, and making their city or region an affordable
place to live. It's all well worn and hardly gripping stuff,
and it's difficult to differentiate between candidates unless they're wearing
a silly hat, which is all a terrible shame. Decisions
councils make affect our lives daily in many ways. We
need to change the voting system. Postal voting isn't working,

(03:29):
and we need to attract better leadership to these thankless roles.
We need to stomp our abuse and harassment. Pay them more, Yes,
pay them more, and then hopefully more smart, reasonable people
will step up. Perhaps then we'll get off our butts and.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Vote for more. From the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudken.
Listen live to News Talks the b from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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