Nandor Tanczos has always been drawn to Whakatāne and feels he is ready to lead the district as mayor. Photo / Diane McCarthy
Nandor Tanczos is running a green campaign for the Whakatāne mayoralty, though his tactic has nothing to do with his former political party.
The former Green MP's election signs are made from a new paper-based, non-toxic, fully bio-degradable product rather than the plastic-based Corflute signs that are commonplace.
"All of my leaflets are Forest Stewardship Council-certified and use vegetable ink as well.
"I'm running a sustainable campaign," he said.
"I was really happy to find this product, which will last for the campaign, but then can return to Earth."
While it's a small step on the road to Whakatāne becoming the sustainability capital of New Zealand, as he feels it has the potential to become, he is proud of the achievements he has made since being on the council.
"At the end of my first term, I had achieved really significant progress in developing a climate change programme. Plus, I like to think I was pretty influential in Whakatāne Ki Mua, actually engaging with our community in a way we had never done before as a council.
"I really enjoy council work and I think I'm more effective than most. I wouldn't have thought there were many councillors who at the end of their first term could point to some specific, significant victories they've made. I'm proud of that."
With two parents uprooted from their own countries through political upheaval, Tanczos has been politically active all his life.
His father, from Szeged in Hungary, was among the 200,000 political refugees who fled the country after the revolution of 1956. His mother was Cape Coloured South African.
They met at a dance in England.
"She left South Africa as they were constructing apartheid. She wasn't a refugee, but I think her options were being limited. I was about 7 when we came out here, for which I am forever grateful."
The family lived in Auckland, which he remembers as something of a disappointment.
"I was a young boy and had very unrealistic expectations. Because when you go to Hungary you speak Hungarian, when you go to France you speak French. I thought we'd come to this country, and we'd speak Māori and we'd wear piupiu, like in the tourist brochures.
At the age of 14, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Hungary for a year.
"Nobody spoke English there then. So, I had a total immersion experience. It really allowed me to understand who I am as a Hungarian, to understand the language and the culture."
"Here, it was just my parents and my brother and me, but [in Hungary] I was part of a big extended family. Our whole street was all Tanczos' basically."
In some ways, it has led him to relate better to the Māori worldview, with which he found much in common.
"For example, my people lived on the Tisza River for generations upon generations, so our relationship with the river, while not the same as a Māori person's relationship with their awa, is at least relatable. Human culture all around the world expresses itself in unique ways, but there's underlying values that are the same, because of our nature which is to be social and to look after each other.
"People think that human nature is to be mean and cruel, and I don't believe that. I think that's what we learn, and we can unlearn. That's what I feel. Our natural inclination, left to ourselves, is to be kind and compassionate to each other."
He said he had always felt drawn to Whakatāne, even as a child. He felt attracted to the "raw geothermal energy of the Earth" and the fact that it is a "Māori speaking stronghold".
"That's something really special. I can't say I'm fluent but I'm kind of conversational and I love hearing Māori language around me."
His wife, hugely successful self-published author Ngahuia Murphy, whose books have given rise to a cultural shift around mana wahine, is of Ngati Manawa and Tūhoe. Their children are daughter Pirimaia, 19, and son Te Hau, 10.
"So, the other thing was wanting to come back into the land of her people for the family and the children and for her, to connect with where they come from."
After two terms as a councillor, he now feels he is ready for the mayoral role.
"I've shown a huge amount of leadership, got my head around how the system works, I like to think I'm respected by councillors and staff, but at the same time able to ask the hard questions and hold people to account. So, at the end of my second term, I feel well equipped to step into that role."
Despite his nine years in Parliament, he felt it would have been presumptuous to try to take on the mayoralty any earlier.
"It's getting to know the community a bit more, and letting the community get to know me a bit more –aside from the presumptions people have when you live a public life – but also getting to understand council. It's very different from Parliament. I'm politically experienced, but the council is a very different beast.
"At the end of my second term, I feel as if I've got a really good handle on how things work. I've been chair of the strategy and policy committee, so I've had that kind of leadership role. I've been made the chair of the chief executive performance and support committee.
"That's been good because I've been able to introduce a really robust performance framework. That's also helped me to get my head around the machinery of the council because, developing those key performance indicators, you're reaching right into the organisation.
Among his chief concerns for the district is the housing shortage.
"I don't think it's the council's role to build a lot of housing, but I think we have a really critical role in supporting more housing. It's projected that we need 150 new houses a year for the next 10 years. That's a lot of houses for a community like ours."
He also puts great importance on building a more resilient local economy that is less susceptible to external disruptions.
"Covid is just one example. There's the invasion of Ukraine and general global financial instability. I think we're going to see more of these shocks."
He thinks Whakatāne has the potential to position itself as a centre of sustainability, or even the sustainability capital of New Zealand.
"That would be great for us. What a fantastic selling point. We've got so much potential for it. Increasing numbers of farmers are moving toward regenerative-style farming.
"I see local businesses too, moving in that direction. We've got so much going for us. We've got amazing, creative people, we've got natural resources, so I think we can really thrive, but we have to work strategically.
"In terms of energy, we could be self-sufficient. We're a prime place for solar, but we've got geothermal in our subregion, we've got hydro. I think food is another area. We've got fertile soil and we are big food producers, but it's mostly for export.
"That's cool, we need the money coming into our community, but I think we could do a lot more in terms of supporting local produce for local markets. We need to look at how we can get the money circulating around the local community a bit more, rather than coming in and going straight out again, because that's how you create wealth.
"The council has this civil leadership role that no one else really has. It's not our job to do everything but it is our role to facilitate those conversations in our community, with our businesses, with different agencies and build a coherent picture, a sense of where we're going.
"If we do that, I think it's not just a question of handling everything that comes our way. We could really flourish as a sub-region."
Local Democracy Reporting is public interest journalism funded by NZ On Air.
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