“I have noticed there is a huge lack of youth in governance positions. I feel like we will experience a bit of a brain drain once older generations stop being in those positions.”
He had plans to go travelling overseas next year but because of Covid-19 that won't be happening. So he thought about what else he could do.
“I'm going to be in Gisborne for the next wee while and there's no point travelling around NZ for the sake of it, so I thought I would give the by-election a shot.
“I would rather stay here and contribute to this community that has contributed to me.
“You can do all sorts of stuff outside the council like volunteering to help make change, but there are things you can't affect unless you're at the top table.”
Isaac was born in the East Coast town of Te Puia Springs and lived in Ruatorea before his family moved around the Coast. He lived in Makarika, Waipiro Bay and finally Tokomaru Bay until he was 18 years old. He has been living in Gisborne since.
He is the eldest of six siblings — Josh, Didi, Israel, Grace and Beulah. All of his siblings including himself were home schooled.
“My parents home-schooled us for religious reasons.”
He was still involved in school activities because his father Bill Hughes was a principal at Hiruharama School until Isaac was 14.
Isaac's Years 11, 12, and 13 were done through correspondence learning.
At 15 years old he started on his accountancy journey by doing an accounting paper.
He has been working at BDO Gisborne since January 2020. Prior to this he worked at Coates Associates for seven years.
Isaac studied a Bachelor of Business Studies majoring in Accounting at EIT Tairawhiti from 2012 to 2015. He then pursued the goal of becoming a chartered accountant in 2015 and gained that designation in July 2020.
“Chartered accountancy is quite high level — it's one of those things where they set the bar quite high. It was far more intense than I expected.”
Isaac regrets not taking a break between university and starting the chartered accountancy pathway.
“I burned out and decided to take a year off and start again,” he said.
Being a councillor and an accountant are not the only things Isaac gets up to.
He has interests in football, cricket and playing the piano.
Earlier this year he created a charity football tournament after seeing a hole in the market for sports where you can just show up, play for an hour and a half and then leave.
All of the money from teams signing up is donated to charity.
The first tournament's fundraising was given to Swim for Life Tairawhiti's endowment fund administered through The Sunrise Foundation. The second is going to Stroke Tairawhiti and the next will raise money for the Gisborne Volunteer Centre.
“They co-ordinate a lot of charity work in Gisborne. They don't get a super amount of funding — it's quite limited. So I wouldn't mind helping them.”
Cricket is another passion of his. He plays for High School Old Boys (HSOB), and is the newly-appointed chairperson of Poverty Bay Cricket.
“I thought ‘ah I'm not doing enough, I better take some more roles on',” he jokes.
“It's a really cool and rewarding role to be in,” he said.
On Saturday mornings he helps with the children's cricket team, HSOB Pups. Then in the afternoon he plays cricket.
He also enjoys vegetable gardening. When he lived on the Coast he had a whole paddock as a vegetable garden.
“It's time-consuming but it's a very positive thing to do. I enjoy my time in the garden.”
Isaac is also a musician — he had piano lessons from Margaret Dunsmore every fortnight.
“It was my life for many years.”
He doesn't play the piano as much as he used to, but enjoys sitting down after a busy day and playing for about 20 minutes to clear his head.
Isaac is also the chairperson of Swim For Life Tairawhiti which is a major passion of his.
He speaks te reo Maori, and wants to start using it more and getting back into the habit of speaking te reo.
“Our dad used to speak te reo all the time but as I grew up I stopped. I regret that — I should have just kept speaking it.”
His plans for the future aren't set at this stage but he does plan on being future- focused in his role as a councillor.
“We all need to think 20 years ahead and set things up for future generations.
“Next year I want to be focusing on the council and the community.”
There could be a possibility of giving central government politics a go.
Isaac sees himself as socially liberal but fiscally conservative.
“We are pretty lucky in Gisborne to have had some good politicians come from this region.”
But for now he will be working at BDO until the end of the year.
“I'm trying to keep up with everything and not let anyone down. But when I finish up at BDO I'll be switching off for a week or so and focusing on what I want to be doing next year.”
