Residents who gathered at the St Aiden’s Church supper room to hear 13 local government candidates speak yesterday (Wednesday September 7), certainly earned their tea and cake following an afternoon of grappling with big issues facing Central Otago.

Around 50 people attended the Alexandra ‘meet the candidates’ event hosted by Grey Power, and the opening address by mayor Tim Cadogan (elected unopposed) put the current times into context.

“Change, change, change…that’s where we are heading now.”

He told the crowd the October 8 election was likely to be the most important in the Central Otago District Council’s history.

In a mix of suggested topics and their own ideas, candidates spoke of housing, museums, infrastructure, rates, the environment, and water. Unpopular central government policies and pine trees - wilding and otherwise - also regularly popped up throughout the two-hour session.

First speaker David George (Cromwell Ward) favoured helping young families with childcare support, supporting co-governance and reviewing museum spending. 

“I am unashamedly in support of co-governance, if you don’t like that don’t vote for me.”

Shane Norton speaks to residents. At the table from left is Tamah Alley, Dr Roger Browne, Jayden Cromb, Martin McPherson (obscured), Maurice Vaughan, Mason Robinson, Alexa Forbes, Michael Laws, Gary Kelliher, Mike Barker and Tony Lepper

Fellow Cromwell Ward candidate Shane Norton was more concerned with housing provision across all age groups, seeing potential in council-owned land being used, possibly incorporating tiny or transportable housing.

The sports-mad radio station owner said he would push for free swimming pool access across the district if elected.

Vincent Ward candidate Tamah Alley, who spent 12 years as a police constable, said developers could be incentivised by council to provide more housing options such as smaller sections. High costs of living in the area had become “really noticeable” in the past two years, she said.

Council needed to really work on waste management to avoid growing costs of sending material to landfill, she told the crowd.

Dr Roger Browne (also of the Vincent Ward) said he was saddened to see older people having to leave the district or couples having to live separately due to a lack of facilities in Central.  

He was keen to seek restoration of council funding to Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery, to reverse an earlier removal of support by council. 

His view was not supported by the following speaker, Jayden Cromb (Vincent Ward), who said young people had told him the museum was “dark, boring and never changes.”

Jayden, a father of three who works in the social services sector, favoured higher density housing where needed and more education on recycling to help people better avoid landfill use.

Current Vincent Community Board chair Martin McPherson told voters there was no easy fix for the housing issue and “phenomenal” growth was a big issue which council was partly addressing through Plan Change 19 {rezoning}.

“There is no silver bullet for that issue but there are models that can be looked at.”

Vincent Ward candidate and economist Maurice Vaughan extolled the introduction of a people’s bank to promote ethical social investment. He distributed pamphlets to the audience outlining an Australian model of such an initiative.

Maurice told voters he was inspired to stand by his opposition to the government’s 3 Waters proposals, as outlined at a Groundswell meeting.

Teviot Valley’s Mason Robinson drew appreciation from the mainly-senior crowd with his call to focus on the “three Rs” – roads, rubbish and rates.

The former Jimmy’s Pies baker left that kitchen to gain a degree in politics and economics and is a local National Party branch chair.

The 3 Waters Reforms were “the bane of his existence” with so many people believing them to be “too much”, he said.

At the end of the long table the five Otago Regional Council candidates vying for three available seats on the Dunstan Ward were led by an energetic Alexa Forbes. Her great concern was the lack of enough action on the environment and the challenge of balancing economic interests with protection.

The Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme – a project candidates were asked to comment on – had her “very worried” culturally and in an environmental sense.

“The mixing of water there is untenable for iwi,” she said.

Michael Laws felt the vast Dunstan zone was difficult for three elected members to represent and also that ORC staff needed to be located in situ to better understand the area they served.

He was very aware of the big rates rises – 48 per cent last year and 18 per cent this year – and believed better communication was needed.

“There are 15 communications staff at ORC, I don’t know what they do as I don’t see any effective communication coming out of our council.”

Farmer and roading contractor Gary Kelliher said the setting of minimum flows for the Manuherikia River should have been a straightforward process as all parties cared deeply for the river but instead it had driven a wedge into the community.

He was concerned over commercial carbon forestry as a threat to farming and communities and also worried the ORC had potential staff structure issues.

“I’m not okay with managers, on managers, on managers.”

Marine scientist Mike Barker described the 3 Waters Reforms as “half-baked” and wanted environmental monitoring of water bodies to measure things like sediment and nutrient levels over time. 

“We know almost nothing about this background information. We need to know.”

Former CODC mayor Tony Lepper said he was spurred to re-enter local politics by the ORC making headlines “for all the wrong reasons”.

A member of the Rural Water Technical Advisory Group for the 3 Waters reforms, Tony said it was important to be on board and try and find solutions, despite believing the reforms to be “fundamentally dumb”.

As the event concluded an audience member asked candidates to declare if they were members of the anti-government group Voices For Freedom. All said no but Maurice Vaughan defended the group as an “important contributor to what is going on in New Zealand”.

Affiliations with groups stirred further debate but the issue was deftly put to rest by organisers.

“I think we should leave the affiliation business there and let it lie,” Grey Power’s Margaret Hill said.

To keep up to date with elections, and profiles of candidates for all boards, go to The Central App special Election 2022 section.