Moutere-Waimea ward in 2025 local election

The Moutere-Waimea ward has a population of 15,650 people and gets to vote three councillors. That means each councillors represents 5,217 people of this ward making it the ward in the district with the worst representation. For comparison the Maori ward councillor will be representing 2540, the Lakes Murchison 3700, one Richmond Councillor 4837, one in Golden Bay 2795 and one Motueka representative 4167 people. Only one of the three current councillors is seeking re-election and there are a further three candidates standing.

The candidates have only very few lines to make themselves known in the information booklet which comes together with the voting papers. In addition, community groups organised meetings where the candidates appear in a speed dating like scenario with all other candidates and are asked to perform well under pressure and express themselves well. They are first invited to speak about themselves for a number of minutes and will then be faced with either questions aimed at a particular candidate or at all candidates.

Some have never worked in local politics and may only be known to some through various other activities - do these tell people enough about whether or not a candidate will bring the required skills to the table where the job is to make political decisions? Others who have political experience - have they proven to possess the skills the are needed for a role of an elected representative in local politics? The new councillors will have to have have consideration to the needs and wants of the ward he or she will be representing whilst at the same time having to fairly balance these against overall priorities of the whole district. This is a huge balancing act each councillor is facing when tasked with making good political decisions. It does require good judgement and communication skills.

Given the dire financial situation of this particular council it will be a tough decision between further rate hikes to keep up with infrastructure costs (maintenance and newly built) and losing more current ratepayers to other districts (because they can no longer afford the increased rates) or less infrastructure and upkeep with less demographic change in respect of the current population. What is the direction for the district preferred by the the majority of the district for this coming term?

For this election, interestingly, this ward has a large number of community associations and was blessed with the most opportunities for meeting the candidates, both mayoral and for the ward. There were two meetings in Upper Moutere, one in Ngatimoti, Redwood Valley, Wakefield, Mapua and Brightwater. That is seven meetings for one ward - quite impressive! The meetings were usually attended by around 30 people. This article focuses on the ward candidates. A summary of the mayor candidates will be published separately.

The candidates

The Moutere-Waimea ward has got three councillor vacancies to be filled, with one incumbent councillor seeking re-election, first-term councillor Mike Kininmonth. The further three ward councillor candidates are ex-councillor of two terms Dean McNamara, Dave Woods and Julian Eggers. This is what the council candidates say about themselves: https://www.tasman.govt.nz/my-council/about-us/your-mayor-and-councillors/local-elections/nominations-received/moutere-waimea-ward

Having seen the candidates over a large number of meetings should have helped to gain an understanding of what they are standing for. The upside: all candidates said they were happy to open up workshops to the public.

Mike Kininmonth has had one term on Council and usually started his presentations with comments on the community hall in which the particular meeting was held. It would appear that he is and was willing to engage with people on topics like community halls and the maintenance thereof. The words he used to describe himself match pretty much what the crux of his presentation was during those meetings: “I offer experience in local body politics, am more than capable in representing you, with enthusiasm and willingness. I'm keen to see that todays decisions make our region a better place to live in the future.” He seems in good company with other incumbent councillors e.g. Glen Daikee, Jo Ellis or Kit Mailing from Richmond who promote a similar view. There were a number of faux-pas when asked questions about particular political topics like the dam where we were not convinced that the experience on council resulted in knowledge. Probably someone who is happy to engage on topics like rubbish on the road where he seems happy to help concerned residents out. Anything which requires speaking up would seem somewhat difficult for him. He was asked a long time ago why he elected not to receive communications from people who were banned from contacting council staff or certain elected representatives (like Tasman Democracy Inc members) and he admitted that he did not know about this. Time has passed and nothing has changed - our communications do still not find their way directly into his mailbox without prior check-ups from someone or a certain team of council staff. We do not think that this is very helpful for maintaining a meaningful and workable relationship with an elected representative. He looks to Tim King often for guidance.

Dean McNamara is a man of no road side signs who keeps his comments short and sharp during meet the candidates nights. To illustrate him in a sentence: asked in Brightwater about the benefits of having the Waimea dam - “I think the only benefit of the dam was that you weren’t flooded recently because it held the water back. So that’s a bonus.” He is very knowledgeable and comes with two terms of experience in making political decisions for the district. He has been writing a blog for some time and does seem to be on target when he opens his mouth. He does not hold back his opinion, votes accordingly and seems more than capable of dealing with the aftermath of speaking up against a majority (he has accumulated some code of conducts over the years). His focus is and was clearly on ethics and prudent spending of public money. His statements on his website, on policy.nz and his voting records show consistency.

Julian Eggers promotes himself to be bringing the perspective of the youth around the table. Had the same speech that he read out each time. One of the contents of his presentation is that he closely follows council meetings to stay informed. Unfortunately, however, he found it difficult to understand or respond to certain questions and did not convince us that he had in fact solid knowledge around council topics.

Dave Woods is a man who is new to politics but clearly fed up with rate hikes. He puts the focus of his campaign onto representing the ratepayers around the table. He has got a solid business background and does not seem airy fairy in his views. He does not pretend to know everything and showed to be approachable and genuinely interested in listening and learning about current issues. He did not know much about the representation issues of this ward right at the beginning of those candidates evenings but could assure later that he had read up on the issue. There is not much more that can be expected from a candidate. Let’s hope that he can stay as committed to reading up on issues if elected before making a decision like everyone else as that is often a real risk.

The ward and its current representation

Two of the three councillors are no longer standing, one of whom was just voting on attesting high performance of the CEO as part of her function on the CEO review subcommittee. The other first-term councillor did stay very calm throughout this term and was absent for a number of important decisions. Both were absent for the latest confidential session on the Plan Change 81. Both councillors did elect not to receive communication from Tasman Democracy and some of its members when the CEO put in place communication restrictions for staff wellbeing reasons.

The Moutere-Waimea ward combines a number of settlements ranging from Upper Moutere, Mapua, Tasman across to the Redwood Valley, Brightwater and Wakefield. The Mayor has repeatedly stated that various settlements like Wakefield and Brightwater had unrecognisably changed over time but are still awesome places to live. The Council does not seem quite sure whether these are now considered “urban” (their documents) or “rural” settlements (their stance towards the Local Government Commission during the representation review). Mapua also has a very distinct character and identity and it will be interesting to see how the next representation review approaches this ward in particular - will there be some identity overlap recognised with Motueka (Moutere part) or Richmond (Waimea part) or how else could this ward be structured so that people receive a fairer representation in the future? Or will the Council’s view be confirmed again and changing anything to this ward would split communities of interest? We will see.

Interesting in any case is that there seem to be many little communities which look after their residents (or special interests) as we can see in the significant number of community associations.

The Eves Valley Sawmill closure will most likely affect a number of residents. People were affected by the recent floods. There are large farms, lifestyles, small business owners and producers as well as those with sea views who live close to restaurants and shops.

This ward as well as Motueka is most affected by the tiny home issue. The new speed limits are clearly affecting this ward and each driver should have their watches available when driving past schools as all of them seem to have different rules at different times. It would seem in result the Moutere Highway gets used less but the Coastal Highway more. With way more Police present to monitor speed.

The role of an elected councillor

Councillors are governance not part of management. Logically, their achievements will be measured through the political decisions they make around the council table in Richmond and some of those decisions will reflect on each ratepayers’ invoice, their fees and charges, speed limits, core and community infrastructure and rules coming from bylaws. As plan changes are currently being put on hold by central government, there may be less on this front for now. Decisions on bylaws, policies, rates, debt, development contributions, unbudgeted expenditures, decisions to move into a confidential session, decisions to agree or disagree to information in a staff report. Those decisions require a strong commitment for reading a lot in a very short period of time. It requires the mental and intellectual capacity to read the small print and to ask in public when something is unclear, to speak up when needed and to stand up for what is right even though some may not agree. It also requires someone who is willing to understand the legal implications of the decisions lying on the table as well as their practical value and the financial implications of those decisions. The speed limit changes are a recent political decisions the whole district is now faced with.

It does not stop with reading, but understanding matters quickly, making up their minds, preparing relevant questions, taking questions coming from the community in respect of those items on the agenda into account, debating in public and finally voting on those matters whilst at the same time adopting past meetings’ minutes which means attesting that they present an accurate record of those. The required skill extends to understanding the applicable legal framework and whether the proposal sits well within it. To be fair, staff assistance is provided. In CEO Leonie Rae’s words in the pre-election report: “Staff will support all Elected Members with the information and training needed to make sound, informed decisions.” In addition, elected members have the opportunity to seek independent advice from LGNZ or maybe even further afield. Whether or how any additional external support can be financed from existing budget, we don’t know. We haven’t seen consistent and high-quality staff input across departments in the last term unfortunately and are concerned that councillors and community board members may not be getting the support they deserve.

The pre-election report does also state important issues for the upcoming years. Given the recently announced stop on council plan reviews and changes up to 2027, it looks as though this incoming Council will be stuck with current rules for a while without much flexibility and room for making new rules for the district. The upside may be that there might be potential for less packed agendas going forward but there could be a potential for focusing on potential changes in central government when those haven’t been implemented yet and which may not persist after yet another central government election in the next year. So really, a difficult task for all councillors to stay focused on the relevant political decisions in accordance with the current legislative framework.