By Mary Afemata of Local Democracy Reporting
Local Auckland politicians are calling for changes to the way elections are run to boost turnout among Pacific communities.
An Electoral Reform Group has been established by Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) to look at how to improve voter turnout by moving away from postal voting and changing to a four-year term.
Henderson-Massey Local Board deputy chair Will Flavell says he is supportive of considering online voting.
“It’s [postal] just a ridiculous method of voting,” he says.
“Grab the letter out of your mailbox, either find your postbox, go to your library, or find a booth somewhere.”
Flavell says that local body voting should be run more like a general election.
“If we had a full day of voting for local government, we could go to a local school, or library, get out there, and have booths in all our community centers, and give it that same importance or treatment as central government,” he says.
“Local government’s just as equally as important as central government.”
The 2023 Census shows that 275,079 Pacific people live in the Auckland region, with the largest Pacific populations in the local board areas of Māngere-Ōtāhuhu (43,587), Ōtara-Papatoetoe (42,381), and Manurewa (27,381).
However, when it comes to turnout stats, it doesn’t bode well for Pacific engagement.
Ōtara-Papatoetoe recorded the lowest voter turnout in Auckland in the last three local elections – 27.3 per cent in 2016, 22.7 per cent in 2019, and 22 per cent in 2022.
Apulu Reece Autagavaia, local board chair for the area, says there needs to be a combination of ways to get people to vote because it’s not a high priority for Pacific communities trying to survive and make ends meet.
“We can make it more accessible but getting people to actually register and vote is the big task,” he says.
“There are real serious issues about doing one method.
“We need a range of ways to interact with our community, it can’t all just be electronic.”
But Apulu adds that just getting people interested in local body politics is a barrier to voting.
“If you’re already used to voting then e-voting will make it easier for them but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to even get people registered, let alone voting so that’s the gap.”
Apulu is also in favour of a longer electoral term.
“You might make a plan in year 1 and in year 2 the staff come back with advice, year 3 you confirm funding and then it’s the election and you haven’t even built anything,” he says.
“I’m probably leaning towards a longer term because things just move so slowly in local government that you can’t really make any change.”
Along with consulting community, councils, and central government, the LGNZ Electoral Reform will also consider how people can vote, the potential implementation and transitioning to four-year terms, as well as determining the best approach for administering local elections.
“The decline in voter participation over the last three decades is a threat to the mandate mayors and councils have to speak up for their communities,” says LGNZ’s Electoral Reform Group chair Nick Smith.
“It is more important than ever, with democratic values being challenged internationally and growing disinformation on social media, that we refresh our approach to local elections.”
Auckland’s next local body elections will take place in 2025.
