Further reflections on the elections

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

One striking factor in preliminary Gisborne District Council election results for the city ward is that voters were so clear in their choice of the nine councillors they wanted around the governance table.

The gap between ninth-placed candidate Terry Sheldrake on 4349 votes and 10th-placed Nick Tupara on 3253 is 1096 votes — not much less than the 1343-vote spread in the other direction covering all nine successful candidates, through to top-ranked Josh Wharehinga on 5692 votes.

The mayoral result and the winning margins for Sandra Faulkner in the Taruheru-Patutahi ward and Kerry Worsnop for Waipaoa were also convincing, so there is no way final results, after all valid special votes are counted, will change the outcomes in these races announced over the weekend. The 36-vote margin for Bill Burdett in Matakaoa-Waiapu is probably enough to make our now longest-serving councillor feel reasonably safe too.

An interesting aside to Federated Farmers regional president Sandra Faulkner’s landslide victory over one-term councillor Malcolm MacLean in the Taruheru-Patutahi ward is the large number of blank votes — 82, against 108 in total for the city ward, five for Matakaoa-Waiapu and 14 for Waipaoa.

The power of both incumbency and name recognition came to the fore in the city, with all sitting city ward councillors who stood again re-elected, and the three new councillors — Tony Robinson (ranked 6th), Debbie Gregory (7th) and Mr Sheldrake — all having high profiles.

That translated across to the Hauora Tairawhiti Health Board election result too, with five of the seven elected positions set to be filled by dual councillors based on the preliminary result. The adage that voters don’t like double-dipping across these two boards elected by the district is clearly a small factor when up against the power of name recognition.

At least the two other successful candidates (at this stage) are steeped in knowledge of the region’s health sector — with Dr Heather Robertson the nurse leader for primary and community at Hauora Tairawhiti, and Hiki Pihema the head dietitian. Financial/accounting skills will be one key consideration for the Minister of Health in appointing additional board members.

A major oversight this election campaign, and key impediment to new candidates having a chance to shine, was the lack of any candidate event organised for those vying for the health board. That needs to be rectified in 2022.