Thank you and congratulations to all those who put their hands up to be a part of the local body elections this year.  It was really great to see so many people passionate about our district's growth and wellbeing represented.

Kaipara District Council once again has a Mayor, Whangarei and Far North have recycled theirs. Big congratulations to all of the mayors for achieving that role.

A personal thank you to all the people who voted for me, this humbles me that you have put your trust in me for the position of Okara Ward Councillor.  I will endeavour to serve you well.  As for the Northland DHB, I wasn’t as successful, however I still say thank you for voting for me.

From the other side of the coin I do understand the effort, time and money that some candidates have put into this process and it can seem very heart breaking at times, as I have been there too, but please don’t give up hope.  With your help we still can make a change and get these districts going forward.

Sadly voter turnout again is down, which says something about Northland; however these stats are not specific to Northland it is happening all around New Zealand.  According to elections.org.nz there were 58,286 people enrolled to vote for Whangarei in September 2016, 39,350 for Far North, and 14,444 for Kaipara.  However according to the Whangarei District Council only 25,688 attempted to vote for the mayor, which means a total voting turnout of around 44% actually voted.  This of course doesn’t include late or special votes; however 44% is a far cry from the 2007 results which had it at approx 51% voting.

So what can be done to improve this? During the election process people have talked about STV, compulsory voting, and even making it all electronic.  All might have merit, however I have found that the only reason people vote is that they are personally involved in the election process (as they know someone), or they feel they have a sense of duty to the district.

However as the three years go by, let’s see if we can get more engagement of the districts so that when the next election comes round we can get the involvement back up to at least 51%.