Tauranga City commissioners (left to right): Shadrach Rolleston, Bill Wasley, Stephen Selwood and Anne Tolley.
Tauranga City commissioners (left to right): Shadrach Rolleston, Bill Wasley, Stephen Selwood and Anne Tolley.
An independent poll has found most respondents in favour of the decision to appoint commissioners to run Tauranga City, but they also support the suggestion of having them replaced with elected representatives a year early.
Tauranga Ratepayers’ Alliance commissioned the poll from Curia Market Research. It was conducted between April23 and 24 and surveyed 260 Tauranga respondents via phone and 160 via an online panel.
People were asked several questions relating to the commission, including whether people were aware Tauranga City Council was “run by four commissioners ... rather than elected councillors”, and whether people supported or opposed this decision.
The commission was appointed in 2021.
The poll found 86 per cent (351) were aware of their position and 55 per cent (224) of respondents supported the Local Government Minister’s decision to appoint them to the role.
Despite this, 56 per cent of respondents (228) opposed the March 2022 decision to cancel scheduled local body elections and extend the commission’s term until 2024. Thirty-five per cent (145) of respondents supported this move.
Respondents were then asked: “The commission’s term is currently scheduled to end in July 2024. Would you support or oppose ending their term early and holding an election for a new mayor and councillors on the same day as the parliamentary general election in October?”
A total of 67 per cent (275) supported running local elections alongside the general election, with 26 per cent (107) opposing the idea and another 6 per cent unsure.
When asked, “How good a job do you think the commission running Tauranga City Council has done over the past two years since it was appointed - has it been very poor, poor, average, good, or very good?”, the majority of 32 per cent (130) voted “average”.
Another 20 per cent (83) said “good” while 20 per cent (82) said “poor”.
Fourteen per cent (59) said “very poor” and 7 per cent (30) said “very good”. Six per cent (26) were unsure.
Tauranga Ratepayers’ Alliance member Sam Hill said the alliance believed commissioning the poll was “the right thing to do”.
“My position, and that of the alliance, is that we would like elections as soon as possible so we can have democracy in Tauranga.”
Hill said that October, when the general election is held, would give potential candidates enough time to prepare and campaign.
Tauranga’s next local body election was not expected until July 2024.
Then-Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, joined by Bay of Plenty List MP Angie Warren-Clarke (left) and Tauranga List MP and now-Education Minister Jan Tinetti, pictured in March 2022 announcing the extension of the commission's term. Photo / Andrew Warner
The poll showed people supported the commission’s initial appointment but “as you can see, the decision to extend the commission has seen some support slip”, Hill said.
Council commission chairwoman Anne Tolley, speaking on behalf of the commission, told the Bay of Plenty Times the poll showed about 60 per cent of respondents were either happy “or at least not unhappy with our performance”.
Tolley said of the 34 per cent who believed the commission had not performed well, she suspected a similar poll relating to previously elected councils would have had “a far lower approval rating”.
“The commission is well aware that many residents would prefer to have elected governance, but the fact is that didn’t work out well last time, and we’ve been put here to do the job of addressing issues that elected councils had put in the too-hard basket for too many years.
“Some of those issues – like our housing shortfall and traffic congestion – are intractable. It does take a long time to ‘turn the ship around’, but the feedback we’re getting is that there is confidence we’re heading in the right direction.”
Tolley said the commission’s tenure was a matter for the Government to consider.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that most people with a realistic sense of proportion would rather see the Government’s efforts focused on recovering from the recent extreme weather disasters and dealing with the cost of living crisis,” Tolley said.
The same poll also asked respondents for their thoughts about a proposal to build a stadium at Tauranga Domain, potentially at ratepayers’ expense.
The Bay of Plenty Times this week reported Tolley and Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt - who presented a preliminary business case about the stadium project to council this week - dismissed these poll results as biased and incorrect as the majority of respondents opposed the stadium proposal.
In response to these concerns from Tolley and Tutt, Curia principal David Farrar said: “If the council thinks the question’s wording is not great, they should do their own poll. Consultations, while important, are not a scientific representation of the community.”
The poll results were weighted to reflect the overall adult population in Tauranga in terms of gender and age and included a maximum sampling error (for a result of 50 per cent) of +/-4.9 per cent.
Farrar said the weighted results include decimals and rounding of these was why the poll listed 409 respondents, despite the breakdown adding up to 408.
The poll was conducted in accordance with the Research Association New Zealand Code of Practice and the International Chamber of Commerce/European Society for Opinion and Market Research’s Code on Market and Social Research.
