Sam Broughton: Former Selwyn Mayor says increased rates cost him the election

Outgoing three term Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton says rates increases played a part in his job loss. 

Former Councillor Lydia Gliddon has taken the top spot in the country's fastest growing district, unseating the incumbent.

She unseated the current Local Government NZ President by more than 13,000 - he was seeking a fourth term.

Broughton believes Selwyn's larger than average rates increases contributed to voting behaviour. 

He says although it took a personal toll, raising rates was the right thing to do, so the region could invest in long-term infrastructure. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, So what a weird old business the local body
boat turned out to be. As we sit here this morning,
turnout has been thirty two percent, which is down from
last time. Are the mara Ward part of the equation
twenty five of them? Scrap seventeen retains Sam Broughton as
the President of Local Government New Zealand and is with
us Sam, Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
To you, Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
May any escaping that this gets worse every time we
have a crack at democracy, It just gets more and
more embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's hard, isn't it. It's a very very low turnout
again and we've been raising this with the government. Now
we've come up with some recommendations that we urgently need
to be implemented by the next election because your democracy
deserves better than this sort of turnout.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
What is a good turnout in your personal view? What
would make it credible?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Well, we want to be above ethy, don't we. We
want to think about as close to one hundred percent
as we can. But we want people to participate. Some
may choose not to. But if we look at central
government elections, you know we're nearly getting double to turnout
and I think we should expect that for our local
government elections too.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
From your body's point of view, what do you make
It's a move to the right in general, and people
who slept on big rate increases got punished. Is that fair?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah? I think the cost of living that everyone's feeling
the pinch of at the moment, and the situation that
counsels are in with rising costs and few funding levers
other than rates, certainly means that people have you know,
looked at those rates increases and I think that has
been been influential on these outcomes.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, is your story and example of that?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah. I think certainly had larger than average rates increases
in the last couple of years. So you have to
ask people individually why they voted the way they did.
But I think that's part of the story here.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yes, And when you put those rate increases on for
your area, did you go, JESU, this could cost me,
but it's worth it to me. Is that how that worked?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah. You always know that it's going to hurt and
that might take a personal toll, but it's the right
thing to do for me. It's saying we've got this
long term infrastructure that needs last thirty to fifty to
eighty years. We can't just keep passing the costs on
to our children. So yeah, that was part of my
decision making as as we set that stuff up for
the future of our district.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
And what about the mari wards twenty five scrap seventeen retained,
does that tell us anything?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, algaein Zed's position was that, you know, we should
be treating all wards equally and we didn't have referendum
on rural awards or at large wards, but we have
on Mold awards and we've got the outcome now. So
we'll work with our elected members to make sure we
support everyone to get up to speed as they serve
their communities through the next three years. And also those
that are facing the end of the Maldi ward will

(02:25):
particularly sport them through Timadawata.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Good stuff. Nice talk to you, Sam, Sam Broughton, who
was the prison local government New Zealand. He was a
mayor of course if you didn't realize and lost his seat.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
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Speaker 1 (02:38):
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