Tauranga mayoral race: John Robson

John Robson is standing for mayor and in the Bethlehem ward. Photo / Alex Cairns

In July, the people of Tauranga will, for the first time in five years, choose who will run their city. A mayor and nine councillors will replace the four-person commission that has been in place since February 2021. To keep people informed in the lead-up to the election on July 20, Local Democracy Reporting asked the 15 mayoral candidates their thoughts on four topics. Before voting opens on June 29, readers will hear from each of the mayoral candidates.

John Robson is standing for mayor and in the Bethlehem ward, where he lives. He has lived in Tauranga since 2003. He and his partner raised their two sons here, his youngest died last year, aged 19.

Before returning to New Zealand in 2000, Robson was a management consultant for 12 years. Now in his 60s, he retired at age 40 then was elected to Tauranga City Council in 2013, serving a term.

He won a byelection in 2018 and was re-elected in 2019, serving until February 2021 when the council was discharged of its duties and replaced with the commission.

”The skills of a successful management consultant are an almost perfect match for those required to be an effective mayor or councillor,” he said.

Tauranga is the least affordable city in New Zealand because of an infrastructure and housing deficit. How would you address this?

Housing ‘affordability’ is not unique to Tauranga. It’s caused by successive Governments providing insufficient social housing, fiscal and monetary settings favouring land banking and property ‘investment’, and lax immigration settings.

The resultant high housing prices, combined with Tauranga’s lower household incomes, challenging topography, and attractiveness as a place to live, result in our ‘unaffordability’ ranking.

That said, Tauranga should prioritise housing-critical infrastructure and fix its flawed development contribution regime.

These won’t make a significant difference, but they will demonstrate to central government that we are serious about the issue and will share growth costs more equitably.

What would you do to keep young adults in Tauranga and attract others to the city?

Tauranga is a regional centre of more than 160,000 residents. From a New Zealand Inc perspective, the most important thing about Tauranga is our port.

It is natural for some of our young people to seek experiences and opportunities that our city can’t provide, both in New Zealand and around the world — indeed, I would encourage them to do so.

That said, we are growing, and if we manage our growth successfully and deliver an attractive and affordable city, then some of our young adults will return, and we will attract others. My position: don’t panic, the ‘young adult’ sky is not falling.

Tauranga will have its first Māori ward this election. The Government plans to require councils to hold a binding referendum on Māori wards established after March 2021. This means the Te Awanui Māori ward could be in place for only one term. Given the change in government policy, is it important for Tauranga to keep this ward?

No. One councillor elected by Māori on the Māori roll cannot speak for all Māori, yet may be assumed, or even claim, to do so. More challenging is the oath every councillor must swear on taking office requires them to put the interests of the city ahead of the interests of their ward.

I believe there are better mechanisms for ensuring the voices of Māori are heard at the council table, and play a role in the decision-making as required by the Local Government Act. Starting with electing all councillors ‘at large’ using single transferable voting, and engaging more effectively with Te Rangapu.

[Te Rangapū Mana Whenua o Tauranga Moana Partnership is an autonomous body made up of 17 representatives from each of the hapū and iwi in the Tauranga City Council area.]

Hypothetically, if Tauranga won the Lotto and there was no budget, what big-ticket item would you want for the city? Excluding infrastructure, like roads, water services and housing.

Lotto wins range from $4 million to the largest ever being $44m. My point, even in ‘Lotto World,’ there is a ‘budget’.

So, key criteria for me are ‘bang for buck’ and avoiding significant ongoing costs to the community after the spending sugar rush wears off – in my view, something the commission, and some current candidates, clearly give no thought to.

For Tauranga, I would spread the love and accelerate the greening of the Kopurererua Valley, endow a Democracy Tauranga trust to keep residents accurately informed about the performance of Tauranga City Council, and associated entities now and into the future.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.