Local elections deliver New Zealand’s oldest mayoral line-up in recent history

“They say grey hairs are a sign of wisdom, so in that case I must be more than ready to lead Hamilton forward!” Tim Macindoe, Hamilton’s new mayor (and old political hand) quipped to the Herald. On that basis the country is awash in wisdom. Local elections earlier this month have ushered in the greyest cohort of big city mayors in recent memory.

Auckland’s Wayne Brown, 79, and Christchurch’s Phil Mauger, 67, were incumbents, while Wellington’s Andrew Little, 60, and Macindoe, 64, are both debutants, but only in the mayoral sense. Each spent more than a decade in central Government and held a range of Cabinet portfolios. Their average age is pushing 68.

Across the largest 10 New Zealand centres, the mayors’ average age has pushed up three-and-a-half years to 58.

Brown and Mauger are both eligible for New Zealand superannuation, though neither would confirm that they are collecting it. Macindoe, who turns 65 next year, said he intends to draw the government payment.

The pension would be paid in addition to mayoral pay: $318,600 per annum in Brown’s case; $207,000 in Mauger’s; and $187,007 in Macindoe’s.

Brown declined to speak to the Herald on the subject and in a written response, Mauger did not address related questions.

Hamilton Mayor Tim Macindoe is 64. Photo / Tom Eley

Macindoe (a former National Party MP and minister) said he doesn’t think 65 is the right age for universal superannuation to kick in, but it’s not a local government issue.

Andrew Little, a former Labour Party leader, is not yet superannuated but he doesn’t appear to favour mucking with the eligibility rules: “I’m not in favour of raising the age of superannuation. Due to the physical nature of their jobs, there’s a whole bunch of workers whose bodies tend to wear out earlier than other workers. Whatever approach we take toward superannuation, it’s got to work out for working people.”

Superannuation is the purview of central Government; entitlement is universal and begins at age 65.

Treasury’s projections show that the ballooning cost of superannuation, in the context of an ageing population, means that the programme likely needs reform.

Incoming Wellington Mayor Andrew Little and former Mayor Tory Whanau. Photos / Mark Mitchell

Local members are paid from their councils’ revenue, primarily derived from property-based rates; pay levels vary for council size and are set by the statutorily independent Remuneration Authority.

Local government representatives are considered independent contractors and aren’t eligible for employer KiwiSaver contributions.

A break from the past?

The data on local government representatives are thin. Local Government New Zealand senior media adviser James Craw said there is some historical data on mayors to compare to the new cohort.

“Anecdotally ... we believe the average age of mayors has skewed higher in this election, but the stats will tell us for sure,” Craw said.

He’s still searching out the ages of the new crop of mayors, largely through online searches.

Craw said it is clear that there’s been a reduction in the number of women mayors; 34% of mayors before the election were women, that figure now sits at 27%.

The apparently ageing mayors may sit atop a shift to older age across councillors more generally. If that proves to be the case, it’ll be a reversal of the trend in recent years (though there’s a caveat to that).

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger celebrates at home after winning a second term in the local elections. Photo / Rosie Leishman

In 2016, 45% of local government members were 65 years and older. In contrast, that percentage fell to 26% in 2019 and to 24% in 2022.

The data also show that, in the past, the older-age cohorts tended to be more heavily male – in the 2022 elections, 47% of the male representatives were older than 61, while just 27% of female representatives were older than 61.

The figures come from Local Government New Zealand’s post-election survey (rather misleadingly called a “census”) and they come with a significant caveat: the response rate for the survey is just 25%.

Craw said the survey will be repeated early next year.

Andy Asquith, local government specialist and Industry Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney. He previously ran unsuccessfully for mayor in Palmerston North.

Did the issue of rising rates favour age and experience?

The greater age of this election’s mayors appears, at least superficially, to be connected to the general themes of the election: rates inflation over the previous term, and a push toward rates capping or at least an emphasis on fiscal prudence and the cost of living.

“It does appear that we’ve had an election that has generally shifted local politics to the right,” Andy Asquith, an Industry Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, told the Herald.

“Superficially yes, I think you can connect age to what the voting segment of the population was exercised by ... rates was the major issue,” Asquith said, though in his view “fixing” local government spending isn’t going to look like rate caps, “given the extent of infrastructure spending required”.

In recent years, council rates have soared – according to ANZ, they rose between 7% and 12% a year, on average, in each of the last four years.

Asquith cautioned, however, that underlying different councils’ results are different electoral systems: the First Past the Post (FPP) and Single Transferable Vote (STV) systems, each of which produce results that reflect voters’ wishes differently.

He pointed out that one of the most decisive wins belonged to Labour-backed Little in Wellington, “so not right-leaning” and under an STV system which typically requires successful candidates to have broader appeal than under FPP.

The point is that you can’t generalise too much across local elections, Asquith said.

Voter turnout in the local elections earlier this month was a lacklustre 39%. Photo / RNZ, Eveline Harvey

Jeffrey McNeill, honorary research associate at Massey University’s School of People, Environment and Planning, was cautious about identifying the recent election as anomalous.

McNeill said the new cohort of mayors may have a higher proportion of incumbents than usual, something that could lead to a “clearing-out” of the system in 2028 when some of the old hands retire.

As a general rule, mayors tend to be older than councillors, perhaps because of the skill and experience needed in coalition-building around council tables, he said.

McNeill also noted that they frequently build a local profile through networks like Federated Farmers and the Rotary Club, the membership of which tends to be older.

Did lower voter turnout play a role?

Low voter turnout has become a perennial issue in local government elections but it isn’t clear that lower turnout this year is responsible for any emerging trends.

While turnout was a lacklustre 39.4% nationally, it was just a hair lower than in the previous two elections; it was 40.4% in 2022 and 42.2% in 2019.

Mayors by 10 largest cities

Auckland

2025 Wayne Brown, 79

2022 Wayne Brown, 76

Christchurch

2025 Phil Mauger, 67

2022 Phil Mauger, 64

Wellington

2025 Andrew Little, 60

2022 Tory Whanau, 39

Hamilton

2025 Tim Macindoe, 64

2022 Paula Southgate, 59

Tauranga

2024 Mahé Drysdale 46

Crown-appointed commissioners replaced elected members from 2021 to 2024

Dunedin*

2025 Sophie Barker, 58

2022 Jules Radich, 67

Whangārei

2025 Ken Couper, 59

2022 Vince Cocurullo, 48

Palmerston North*

2025 Grant Smith, 58

2022 Grant Smith, 55

New Plymouth*

2025 Max Brough, 55

2022 Neil Holdom, 53

Rotorua

2025 Tania Tapsell, 33

2022 Tania Tapsell, 30

*Ages for the Mayors of Dunedin, Palmerston North and New Plymouth are derived from internet search and are approximate.

• Listen and subscribe to the Today in Business podcast – the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an artificial intelligence (AI) voice as an easily digestible recap.