Improving Local Government Representation in New Zealand

A bus shelter advertisement reminding people to enrol or update their details for local elections by August 1 2025, 10 weeks before the voting closes.

Local government elections in New Zealand face persistent challenges with low voter turnout and a shortage of candidates. National average turnout in the 2023 elections was just 41% with Auckland, the largest region, at 35.5%. Meanwhile 64 people were elected uncontested (i.e. were the only candidate to stand for a position). With 2025 shaping up similarly¹, even senior Cabinet Ministers have expressed concern about the lack of candidates in their electorates..

Improving candidacy and voter turnout should be a focus for the next three year cycle, leading into the 2028 elections. But it is also important given current discussions of ‘rates capping’ local councils, which seems to be likely in place by the end of the year². This would see councils limited in the amount rates could increase per year.

Rates capping may be well intended in a cost of living crisis, but I would argue is fundamentally undemocratic. If rates increases are so bad, why can't we leave this to democratic process? If it is such an issue, then why is turnout at Local Elections so low? It is even below that of home ownership rates. There are so many local government projects, which communities want but would likely be unable to deliver with rates capping in place. Take the new Christchurch Stadium - Te Kaha, for example. It accounted for 2.1% of the total 9.9% increase in rates in 2024. While we haven’t seen details of how rates capping will work in NZ. If people want nice things, we should let them pay for it.

I see the continued misalignment between supposed sentiment on rates increases and low turnout, as a further reflection of local government representation issues. If rates rises are an issue, then Central Government should first be focused on addressing barriers to candidacy and voter turnout. I think the contributing issues to this can fall into three categories:

• Poor media coverage of most local council matters

• Low understanding of what roles and responsibilities local council have (and don’t have

• Barriers to voting and standing in elections

Today, I want to focus on how we address the latter points.

Barriers to voting

Local Government elections in New Zealand are run solely through postal voting. While offering some cost savings, it also introduces barriers. Firstly, voters are required to update their address 10 weeks before votes close. This systematically disadvantages renters who are more likely to have changed address, more recently. If you remember too late, you have to do a special vote which by all accounts is a PITA³. You also have to do this if you move house during that 10-week period. Alternatively, you could commit voter fraud or, most likely, you simply don’t bother to vote.

Interestingly, postal voting is considered by some to be a way to enhance electoral participation by minimising the costs associated with voting⁴. This includes wait times and providing flexibility on when people vote. The latter has been successful in New Zealand Central Government elections with over 1.6m of the 2.88m votes being cast before election day⁵. Critically though, this is provided in-person. I firmly believe we need to provide more options, including in-person voting to make it easier if we want improve voter turnout at our local government elections.

Underlying this, we have an inconsistent approach around the country to how local elections are managed with councils able to decide on their own provisions for special voting. This includes the number of locations that are open for Special Voting. We should simplify this and have the Electoral Commission run local elections, as they do for Central Government elections. This will no doubt cost more than the current approach, but should be willing to spend to ensure the democratic process is accessible and supports higher participation.

Improving candidacy turnout

We should want every position to be a competition of ideas, attract broad diversity of people from different backgrounds and ultimately, passionate, talented people who are dedicated to representing their community.

Existing settings firmly work against this. The majority of positions across the country are part-time, meaning most candidates will need to have an additional job to provide sufficient income. They also require a job that doesn’t have a conflict of interest and provides flexibility in hours worked so they can attend official council events and community meetings.

Most positions are, quite frankly, poorly paid, particularly when you consider the personal sacrifice of privacy that individuals, and often their families, must make to do the job well. You can likely think of a local representative you disagree with or you don’t think works hard enough. That’s fair. But how can we attract better candidates if we don’t offer decent, full time salaries?

Together, I think these factors provide real barriers to better candidates standing for local government. There are some other very real barriers to candidates standing, that sadly cannot be addressed through simple reforms. Namely the abuse online and genuine threats to safety that are increasingly common. Earlier this year, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown had unmarked security cars stationed outside his house and CCTV installed after threats online and suspicious behaviour outside his house. Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley has faced consistent abuse online, leading to decisions including removing her name and face from the side of her car and delegating the Chair role of committee to minimise risks.

Abuse is disproportionately targeted at women and people of minority groups. Making it less likely for them to stand. We know that representation can support good governance and decision making. We should want people from all walks of life to feel comfortable to stand in our elections.

Final thoughts

I believe the changes noted here can make a positive difference in improving voter turnout and the number and quality of candidates standing. However, this alone is not enough. We do need to consider how we improve voter understanding of the role and importance of local government and improve media coverage. These likely go hand-in-hand and this may be explored further in future posts. We also need to consider changes as part of other potential reforms to local government that may be appropriate, including amalgamations of councils to better align representation and spatial issues. Overall though, if we want better outcomes, we should focus on making it easier and more attractive to participate in local elections.

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Summary of Suggested Changes

Reduce barriers to voting by:

• Introducing in-person voting options and moving away from postal-only voting

• Centralising election management under the Electoral Commission

• Simplifying and expanding access to special voting

Improve the number and quality of candidates by:

• Making all elected roles full-time

• Offering competitive salaries to attract diverse, high-quality candidates

• Addressing safety concerns and online abuse, particularly for women and minority candidates

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1. Yet again, not enough people are standing in local elections | The Spinoff https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/31-07-2025/yet-again-not-enough-people-are-standing-in-local-elections

2. Local Govt Minister ‘working at pace’ on rates cap model | The Post https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360728713/local-govt-minister-working-pace-rates-cap-model

3. PITA, abbreviation for pain in the ass. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pita

4. Vote-by-Mail - Center for Effective Government https://effectivegov.uchicago.edu/primers/vote-by-mail

5. Voting statistics | Elections https://elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/historical-events/2023-general-election/voting-statistics/