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John MacDonald: What's so bad about political parties having a go at council elections?

Author
John MacDonald,
Publish Date
Tue, 18 Mar 2025, 12:57pm
ACT leader David Seymour. Photo / Jason Oxenham
ACT leader David Seymour. Photo / Jason Oxenham

John MacDonald: What's so bad about political parties having a go at council elections?

Author
John MacDonald,
Publish Date
Tue, 18 Mar 2025, 12:57pm

David Seymour says the ACT Party wants to put up candidates in this year鈥檚 local body elections because 鈥渋t鈥檚 time for a clean-out鈥.

Whatever his motivation is, I think his plan to get ACT involved in local councils is a good thing.

Some people think political parties shouldn鈥檛 be involved in local councils, but what would you prefer?

If someone鈥檚 wearing a party badge, at least you know what they stand for. Anyone else, and it can be a guessing game. And I agree with Seymour when he says it would be way better to know where people stand when you vote for them for your local council.  

I鈥檇 go further than what he says. He reckons that people end up voting for people they have no idea about, but I actually think that people don鈥檛 bother voting in the first place because they鈥檝e got no idea about the candidates.  

Or more to the point, they鈥檝e got no real idea what the candidates stand for.  

Yes, every candidate trots out the usual lines, but you never really know them. Which is why you seem to see so many ex-media people in local government.  

They have a profile and people end up voting for them just because they recognise their name, which is a terrible thing to base your vote on.  

Which is why I think it would be great if, not just ACT, but more political parties were upfront, selected candidates, gave them a party t-shirt, and said 鈥渢his is our person. Vote for them鈥.  

The reason I say 鈥渦pfront" is because we all know that one of the local government groupings in Christchurch is the Labour Party in plain clothing. This is People鈥檚 Choice.  

There are other groupings too, but everyone knows that People鈥檚 Choice is Labour.       

If you have a look at their website, it looks pretty similar to Labour鈥檚 website. But the most obvious thing is right at the bottom of the People鈥檚 Choice homepage, where it says: 鈥淎uthorised by Reuben Davidson鈥. Who, of course, is Labour鈥檚 Christchurch East MP.   

So David Seymour says his reason for wanting to get ACT involved in local body politics is that he doesn鈥檛 think councils have read the room and haven鈥檛 taken it on board that people are sick of councils blowing money left, right, and centre.  

On the money side of it, Seymour says ACT won鈥檛 be financing the campaigns of their local body candidates. They鈥檒l have to do their own fundraising to pay for their campaigns.  

Which I think is good. As he puts it: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not going to see helicopter candidates funded from outside your town. If you can鈥檛 fundraise money for your campaign, maybe people are trying to tell you something.鈥  

So, for me, it鈥檚 a win-win and I鈥檇 like to see more political parties doing the same. 

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