After their pitches, Gisborne Business and Professional Women’s Club president and event host Brenda Kinder gave each candidate one minute to answer the question what difference they would like to make if elected.
Incumbent Mayor Rehette Stoltz, seeking a third term, took the question as an opportunity to promote her flyers.
“I came prepared for a second question ... please help yourself to a flyer... a vote for me will give you a mayor who puts people first, working with and for you,” she said.
In “championing advocacy for our region”, Stoltz said she had great working relationships with the National, Labour and Green parties, “everyone ... we are sorted in that department”.
Challenging her for mayoralty and also running under the general ward are Jono Samson and first-term councillor Colin Alder.
Alder said his No 1 priority would be addressing the top of the Te Arai River, which “still has large pine trees on the top of big slips. Below that are our newly built bridges that hold our water supply”.
“That has not been addressed yet and that is untenable,” he said.
Samson, who many recognise from the 2023 TV2 series Lego Masters NZ, said three reasons to vote for him were authenticity, “bouncebackability” after overcoming mental health issues and cancer, and compassion.
“I’ve got a big heart and I love this region ... I love the community, the culture. The Māori culture saved my life. I’ve got so much love and compassion for this place ... I want to see it thrive,” Samson said.
Out of the 30 councillor candidates, 18 attended Tuesday’s event – five Māori ward and 13 general ward hopefuls.
Of the 19 candidates running for the eight places in the general ward, Debbie Gregory and Alexandra Boros are the only two women.
Gregory, going for a third consecutive term as a general ward councillor, said she would love the region to have a proper recycling centre with a shop where people could buy things others no longer wanted.
“You can drive in and waste can be sorted properly.”
A dump should also be investigated, she said.
“Because it is really wrong for us to be trucking waste out of our region ... it’s 3000 buses out of our region every year.”
Borros said many people flew into Gisborne on Monday and flew out on Friday.
“My goal is to create a better place to attract people.”
General ward candidate Grant Brown said lifting communities, forestry slash maintenance and cleaning beaches would be priorities if he were elected.
“Cleaning everything ... it looks like a mess out there,” he said.
Rawinia Parata, going for a second term as a Māori ward councillor, said CBD revitalisation was important.
She referred to “how far we’ve fallen” and that this was a “hangover” from the decisions of previous councils.
The results of decisions by current councillors would not be seen for another two to three cycles, she said.
“What you think is happening now on the decisions of the people that have been sitting at the table, that’s not ours. We’re cleaning up other people’s messes,” she said.
Māori ward candidate Anne Huriwai said she wanted to strengthen the council’s relationship with iwi, hapū and tangata whenua.
It was vital to “truly listen to the locals on the ground”.
“I want to acknowledge and commend our Gisborne District Council for supporting Māori wards,” she said, adding it was “a no-brainer” given the region’s population had the highest proportion (56%) of Māori in the country.
General ward candidate Blake Webb offered a pro-business stance.
Webb said this was “a democracy” and yet the only six car parks outside his business on Bright St were removed by the council without consultation to put in two more bus stops, “without asking me, without any consideration of my business or employees”.
The council should instead be trying to support businesses, rather than discouraging them, he said.
Other topics raised during the event included rising rates, cost of living, infrastructure costs, roading/potholes, council transparency and being prepared for weather events.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
