Ryan Bridge: Are local elections a flop?

At what point do you say this local government election's a failure, a flop, not worth the paper it's written on?

I think we're fast approaching that point now. 

Even in Auckland - our biggest city. Super-City. With the most responsibility, the biggest burden to shoulder after amalgamation, the turnout with two weeks left to go is 9.2%. Last year it was 35%.

That's not a mandate. It's a vote of no confidence in the entire system. 

If you think about it, it's not like Kiwis aren't engaged in democracy. We come in national elections at a rate closer to 80%. 

So, you ask yourself, what's the problem with local government? Two things. 

1. Too many of them. You axe all regional councils, half the number of local ones. And turn the system from Council-Mayor to Mayor-Council. We have 78 local authorities for 5 million people. It's nuts. 

Once they get to the council table, the mayor becomes a cuck to whatever looney tune nut-bar has made it on there with a few hundred votes and a dream of rising bikes to work. 

People don't vote because the power is too evenly shared. We vote in a guy who's just told the ratepayers group to go "F-off" - even he struggles to shake things up. 

So, we need a better system. Most councils should be put in the bin. And we need a strong mayor system, where the mayor has veto power over legislation, appoints department heads, and controls the budget.

One man, or woman, one plan. Get it done.

Until then, there's no point in voting for a hodgepodge bunch of do-nothing naval gazers sitting round thinking about what's on the menu for the next ratepayer funded lunch.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
At what point do you say this local government election
is a failure, a flop, not worth the paper it's
written on. I think we can pretty much do that now.
Even in Auckland, our biggest city, the super city, with
all the responsibility after amalgamation, the turnout after two weeks
nine percent last time in total thirty five percent. That's

(00:20):
not a mandate. That's a vote of no confidence. And
if you think about it, it's not like Keweis aren't
engaged in democracy. More generally we vote in the national
elections that are very closer to eighty percent. So then
you ask yourself what's the problem with local government? Two things. One,
there's too many of them. You've got to get rid
of regional councils. You can have the number of local ones.
Surely turn the system from a council mayor to a

(00:43):
mayor council system. More on that in a second. We've
got something like seventy eight local authorities for five million people.
It's just nuts. It's dune. Once they get to the
council table. Of course, the mayor becomes a cuck to
whoever looney nutbar Widow was elected to the counsel and
a few hundred votes would have got them there. Of course,
doesn't take much, and they've all got dreams of running

(01:05):
their bikes to work. So here's the problem why people
don't vote. They don't vote because the powers too evenly shared.
I think we vote in a guy who's just told
the rate paying group we're about to to f off.
Did you see that? Yesterday? Wayne Brown, in an email
to the Ratepayers Alliance said just f off. And the

(01:28):
problem with that is we voted this guy in and
even he struggles to shake things up. So we need
a better system. Most councils should be put in the bin,
and we need a strong mayor system. This is where
the mayor has veto power over legislation. They appoint the
department heads and they control the budget. One man or women,

(01:51):
one plan, get it done. Until then, there's no point
in voting for this hodgepodge bunch of do nothing naval
gazers sitting around thinking about what's on the menu for
the next ratee pair funded lunch. For more from Early
Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks it
Be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.