Local Elections

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The mayor is important, but they can’t do too much without a quality group at the table. 

A staggeringly simple guide to voting for Auckland Council

Auckland has made painstaking progress toward becoming a functioning modern city. Now its councillors may put that in jeopardy for a proposal that will save ratepayers an average of 47 cents a week.

Idea: Let’s not mess up Auckland to save ratepayers 47 cents a week

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Boomers versus zoomers, the great uncontested swathes, and what makes Greymouth special.

Policy Local: 10 things we learned from surveying thousands of local election candidates

There are still many barriers preventing people from voting in local elections. Laura O'Connell Rapira proposes some social solutions.

Postal voting is a flimsy antique. The future is social voting

New Zealanders Come Together For National Remembrance Service Following Christchurch Terror Attack

The big shock of the results in the weekend’s local elections was the unseating of Justin Lester as Wellington mayor. He writes on his experience.

Real leaders lift people up: Justin Lester on the Wellington mayoralty

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Yes, there’s a problem, but we should regard any suggestion of a single, simple solution with deep suspicion.

Online voting as the big fix for low turnout is not a brainwave, it’s a brainfart

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Phil Goff was returned by a huge margin on Saturday. How will he put that mandate to use this term?

10 questions with Auckland’s re-elected mayor Phil Goff

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The extraordinary battle for the Tron has ended in a way no one quite saw coming, with the city relinquishing its stranglehold on the title of New Zealand’s most embarrassing council. 

Cheat sheet: The remarkable redemption of Hamilton City Council

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Dunedin's new mayor Aaron Hawkins is, arguably, the first to represent the city's student population as much as its older residents. We asked him ten questions about his win.

10 questions with Dunedin’s new Green Party mayor, Aaron Hawkins

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Hayden Donnell identifies who did well, and who got massively owned, in the 2019 local elections.

Winners, losers, big losers, and gigantic losers from the 2019 local elections

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In one of the biggest surprises of the local elections, Andy Foster has seized the Wellington mayoralty from Justin Lester.

Cheat sheet: Just who is Wellington’s new mayor Andy Foster?

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A festival of democracy is playing out around the country today, as voting closes in our local elections and preliminary results trickle out. 

Live blog: Results of the 2019 local elections

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Sorry about not covering everything that happened these local elections. To make it up to you, we’ve compiled all the stories we missed into an ultimate election-ending list.

All the interesting, funny, weird, and bad things we didn’t cover these local elections

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Tina Nixon, Masterton mayoral candidate and chainsaw model, is leading one of the tightest campaigns rural NZ has seen. Josie Adams headed to the Wairarapa to meet her.

Chainsaw lessons with rates-slashing billboard idol Tina Nixon

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The design of our cities can help shape our mental health. Lucy McLean puts out a call to vote for the politicians who'll build a city where people feel more connected to community.

On World Mental Health Day, a call to vote for more connected cities

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At the Horowhenua District Council, the last three years have been a tale of two mates against the world.

A beautiful local government friendship comes to an end

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In our final local elections race briefing of 2019, Josie Adams (who is lame) visits Palmerston North (which is cool).

Race briefing: Palmerston North, the election that’s so thrilling it’s a crime

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Two young candidates are trying to bring change to the staunchly conservative Waimakariri and Hurunui Districts in North Canterbury. But are their ideas truly new? 

The young candidates trying to take the reins in two of our palest, stalest councils

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Good: setting up places for people to cast a special vote while they’re waiting for their dumplings. Bad: those places running out of voting papers. Hayden Donnell reports on some trouble with Auckland Council’s one stop shops.

Not great: Auckland’s ‘one stop shops’ have been running out of voting papers

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In the final week of the local election campaign, Porirua mayor Mike Tana has been embroiled in yet another brouhaha around how he has spent public money.

Cheat sheet: The storm around the Porirua mayor’s spending

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The best-selling American writer on the ideal conditions for reading, the true meaning of utopia and more.

‘Emily Dickinson made me into a writer’: Lauren Groff on the power of reading

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An early and strong contender for book of the year. 

Page-turning rural gothic: Ash by Louise Wallace, reviewed

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'I just remember seeing them live for the first time and thinking to myself: This is it. This is the reason. This is what life is all about.'

‘It was my Eras tour’: Meet the world’s biggest TrueBliss fans

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How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? 

The voices that vanish in a decimated newsroom 

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The first round changes to the RMA delight farmers and depress environmentalists

Gloomy vibe from infrastructure sector as RMA changes unveiled

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A look at the state of the last government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.

Is KiwiBuild finally on its last legs?

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Review: Scotney's solo show is both sprawling and intimate, and a must-see.

Scattergun: After the Death of Rūaumoko reveals the frightening talent of Ana Scotney

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Is Olivia Rodrigo about to announce a New Zealand show? An investigation

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Welcome to the whirring wonders of one brain trying to align its actions with its beliefs in a system it thinks is evil.

Is it time for anti-capitalists to embrace shopping? An argument with myself

Area man Hayden Donnell joins Toby Manhire for a bonus edition of Gone By Lunchtime, leading a whistlestop tour of the local elections.

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Fresh from an assignment in the Far North, the mayor of the Spinoff’s local elections pop-up section, Hayden Donnell, takes us on a journey from Kaikohe to Dunedin, stopping along the way in Hamilton, Auckland and Porirua.

And he gets fired up. Fired up for democracy.

The Spinoff

Local ElectionsOctober 7, 2019

Politics podcast special: Livin’ la vida local

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Local ElectionsOctober 7, 2019

Politics podcast special: Livin’ la vida local

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