Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Dannevirke electrician wants to spark change as Tararua councillor

Hawkes Bay Today
12 Oct, 2022 01:28 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Steve Wallace is looking forward to his first term on Tararua District Council. Photo / Leanne Warr

Steve Wallace is looking forward to his first term on Tararua District Council. Photo / Leanne Warr

Steve Wallace sees his new role as a Tararua District Council councillor as being "a representative for the people".

Wallace, a Dannevirke electrician, won his seat with preliminary results indicating he received the most votes.

"I'm very touched by the people that did vote for me and I thank them immensely," Wallace said.

Wallace said he owed a special thanks to "my pa who passed, for letting me use his truck, after getting permission from nan".

He was looking forward to the new chapter in his life and intended to enter it with "a clear, unbiased opinion so we can be exposed to the facts and figures".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Wallace will still have somewhat of a learning curve before his first council meeting but he said he'll be sent the details and all the procedures that he'll have to know.

While he wasn't familiar with what had happened in council in the past, he was keen to look to the future and learn from past mistakes so they weren't repeated.

Wallace felt all councillors were going into the term with the same intention – working towards the betterment of the Tararua district.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I've got two new grandchildren now. We're the caretakers of this area and hopefully what I can contribute will be of benefit to my grandchildren and to everyone in Dannevirke."

Steve Wallace speaking at a meet the candidates session in August. Photo / Leanne Warr
Steve Wallace speaking at a meet the candidates session in August. Photo / Leanne Warr

By Wednesday this week, election results showed a little under half of eligible voters had returned their voting papers, with special votes still to be counted.

While Wallace was rapt with the results, he thought it was time for the voting system to be reviewed.

"I think the voting system will come under real scrutiny, because it's not working."

He said most people today, when they got to work, the first thing they would do is turn on a computer and many also did the bulk of financial transactions online.

If voting was online, that could potentially get more voters.

Alternatively, they could go back to the old way of everyone turning up to a polling booth on a set day, where "everyone makes a hoo-rah for that day and go in and do their bit".

However, he felt that the major problem with voting was that people had other things to think about.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I think a lot of people, it's not that they don't want to vote, they're just in such dire straits, they're thinking more about getting food on the table. And that's a sad state of affairs.

"We live in unprecedented times."

Wallace felt people didn't realise they had "the power of one", or they didn't fully understand what their vote was all about.

"Voting is certainly something to be addressed. Let's watch this space and see what happens in the next little while, because I think it is probably time for change."

Tararua district's results were consistent with other regions, but it was also another example of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, which Wallace said was the "definition of stupidity".

"If we expect change and want change, we have to change."

TIGHT RACE FOR MĀORI WARD

Who will sit as the first councillor in the Māori ward for Tararua District Council is still uncertain.

The final count for votes for the district was expected to be announced on Thursday this week. but the seat remained the most hotly contested with a difference of just eight votes.

Naioma Chase had 181 votes as of Sunday and Lorraine Stephenson had 173 with special votes still to be included.

In the North ward, Wallace had the most votes, followed by Erana Peeti-Webber, Kerry Sutherland and Sharon Wards - the latter three returning for a further term.

South ward councillors Alison Franklin and Peter Johns also return for another term with Scott Gilmore and Michael Long each getting enough votes to be elected on the council.

Tracey Collis also returns for her third term as mayor with over 2000 votes more than her closest rival, Sharon Wards.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Woman tied to a pole and gagged during 100 assaults from partner

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema

Hawkes Bay Today

Hastings drinking water and waste water upgrades continue


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Woman tied to a pole and gagged during 100 assaults from partner
Hawkes Bay Today

Woman tied to a pole and gagged during 100 assaults from partner

Court of Appeal upholds jail term of three years and two months.

14 Jul 05:00 AM
Premium
Premium
'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema
Hawkes Bay Today

'Bringing the community together': Young new owner's plans for Hastings cinema

14 Jul 04:29 AM
Hastings drinking water and waste water upgrades continue
Hawkes Bay Today

Hastings drinking water and waste water upgrades continue

13 Jul 10:13 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP