Former Feds president Geoffrey Young running for Southland District mayoralty

High country farmer and former president of Federated Farmers Geoffery Young has joined the race for Southland District mayoralty. Photo / Yvonne O'Hara

Former president of Federated Farmers Geoffrey Young has thrown his hat in the ring for the Southland District mayoralty.

The high country farmer is joining other mayoral candidates Rob Scott and Kirsty Pickett in the elections, due to take place in October.

After completing his three years as president of Federated Farmers in 2021, he started to think about what more could be done in the community with some of the new regulations being introduced by central government, he said.

As one of the powerhouses of the export economy due to its primary industries and tourism, the region and its council needed a strong rural voice to keep those aspects at the forefront while pushing Southland as a great place to live and work, he said.

"The two issues that are very pertinent to the district council going forward are the new government regulations with the Three Waters debacle that we've been having foisted upon us.

"And I've also got a lot of concern around the latest iteration of the indigenous biodiversity regulation."

He said the real elephant in the room when it came to Three Waters was co-governance.

"I've got the greatest admiration and respect for Māoridom, but when we have a government that's pushing 15 per cent of the population to have 50 per cent of the say, in any local democracy it's just not right."

He said while he realised the region certainly needed changes and improvements, these things should be coming from the ground up, rather than the top down.

"Three Waters is absolutely taking all of the democracy from the local ratepayers to central government and adding four or five layers of bureaucracy.

"The figures they present about how efficient it will be and so forth, I really question that."

Young has owned the northern Southland station Cattle Flat for more than 30 years, while also being involved in a number of organisations throughout the region as chairman.

A born-and-raised Southlander, he said he had a real passion for the region, and integrity, and would bring those qualities into the mayoral role.