Mahé Drysdale talks his plans for Tauranga after winning the mayoralty - On the Tiles: Local Edition

Mahe Drysdale is Tauranga's new mayor. Photo / Alisha Evans

Mahé Drysdale has confirmed he will be moving to Tauranga at the end of the year, after securing the city’s mayoralty over the weekend.

Final election results have confirmed that Drysdale, a two-time Olympic gold medalist rower turned financial advisor, has won the mayoral vote by more than 6000 votes.

That is despite Drysdale currently living an hour’s drive away in Cambridge, where he has been commuting from for his job with Forsyth Barr Investment Services in recent years.

Speaking to Georgina Campbell on On the Tiles: Local Edition, the Herald’s local politics podcast, Drysdale confirmed that.

“Basically, our kids are at school until the end of the year, and once they finish, we’ll look to move over here,” describing finding new schools and a house as the “next challenge on the horizon”.

“And as we know, with the most expensive houses in New Zealand, it’s not an easy challenge.”

Drysdale said that the housing issue is a supply and demand one, and that council can help ease supply to bring more housing into the city to reduce prices. He said the Government’s moves to change the Resource Management Act will help there.

The election over the weekend is the first time residents have been able to vote in a new Tauranga City Council, after dysfunction with the previous council saw the Government replace them with commissioners.

Drysdale said that the new council is focused on working as a team, and has been meeting to discuss common themes and visions.

“That’s what we’re still working on, but as we come together, it’s forming a shared vision of where we want to get to, and then kind of making that plan off of how we’re going to get there. And there’s obviously different priorities as to to what they want to achieve, but some of them are in similar veins, so it’s just really formulating that together.

“From the discussions we’ve had so far, you know, everyone just wants the best for the city and they want to see it succeed.”

He said everyone will be leaving their egos and agendas at the door, and that’s something he intends to do too, telling the podcast that he is not looking to push through a personal mandate.

“The biggest thing is I’m one of 10 votes around the table. I don’t really bring any mandate to be able to say we’re gonna do this, we’re going to do that.

“I really just want to get out there and start delivering and making sure that we get stuff done. I want to make it easier for people to deal with for council and to get stuff done, but we’re only going to do that by being a team with ourselves, being a team with the other council staff, being a team with the community.”

Listen to the full episode of the On the Tiles podcast for more from Mahé Drysdale about the future for Tauranga

On the Tiles is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available on Fridays.

The podcast is hosted by Georgina Campbell, a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.