Ngahi Bidois: Lessons from Tim Shadbolt

I am writing this in my hotel room in Perth, Australia, after speaking at the West Australian Local Government conference. As an international speaker, I get to share the stage and listen to outstanding speakers and I would like to tell you about one of the best I have heard. I was one of three keynote speakers allocated 30 minutes each and we spoke to the full contingent of more than 600 mayors, deputy mayors and councillors from throughout Western Australia. Two of the three speakers were Kiwis, the other Kiwi speaker who I would like to write about was His Worship, the Mayor of Invercargill, Tim Shadbolt.

Prior to hearing Tim speak my recollections of him were his "incident" where he towed the concrete mixer with the mayoral car and his quite remarkable survival instinct in Dancing With the Stars. Tim had therefore struck me as someone with a high level of motivation and stickability and his excellent presentation certainly proved that and more.

The emphasis of Tim's presentation was on how the city of Invercargill could increase its population, which was on the decline due to factors such as urbanisation where people were moving to bigger cities with more population, the equator factor where people were also moving to warmer cities closer to the equator and other reasons.

Tim outlined an impressive list of strategies that Invercargill has tried which eventually led to a population increase.

Some of those strategies included free fees at the polytechnic, increasing Tim's profile through Dancing With the Stars, the aluminum smelter developments, the first cycling velodrome in New Zealand, the Oyster Festival, the Ranfurly Shield-winning Southland team and others too, but the ones that stood out for me were the film company and the pigs.

Invercargill has developed a film production team that led to the making of The World's Fastest Indian, all about Burt Munro's legendary exploits in the South.

They are about to release another film and this strategy has also led to Tim being on television more often, which has increased his profile and that of Invercargill - this includes the television programme Intrepid Journeys in which Tim visited Borneo.

However, all of these strategies do not compare to the latest strategy which can only be called Tim's pigs. In fact if you Google "Tim's pigs", you will get the full story.

In summary, Tim agreed to pay for feed for some pigs out of his mayoral discretionary fund.

At the time, it was going to be about $1200 a year and the pigs were being "saved" from the Auckland Islands, south of Invercargill.

However, they bred prolifically once they got to the Mainland and his bill went from $1200 to $12,000. As Tim said, this caused a furore and thunder clouds started to gather. He eventually had his mayoral discretionary fund taken off him and it was renamed the Council Contingency Fund.

However, it now turns out that the pigs Tim saved are the purest pigs on the planet.

In fact, a Melbourne biotech company is investing millions of dollars into a quarantine and research facility between Invercargill and Bluff after initial tests proved these pigs could cure life-threatening diseases, including type 1 diabetes, creating millions of dollars for Invercargill.

The thing that impressed me the most about Tim during his time here at this conference was not his outstanding speaking ability and presentation, but the manner in which he integrated with people. Everyone is treated as an equal by Tim and he is a true ambassador of Invercargill and New Zealand. He also stands for many special aspects of Aotearoa such as the number 8 wire mentality "yeah I'll give it a go" attitude.

So how is your number 8 wire mentality going?

What is the last initiative you started and when did you give it a go? I am not suggesting you go and find some pure bred pigs to save but you may have an idea that has been waiting for years for you to try.

Can I encourage you to kia kaha - kia maia, be strong and persevere, and give it a go. I reckon New Zealand needs more people like Tim Shadbolt.

Ngahihi o te ra Bidois is from Te Arawa and is an international speaker, author and consultant. His book is available at McLeod's book store and the Lakeside Cafe in Rotorua. His website can be viewed at www.ngahibidois.com.