A personal perspective as a spectator, a council candidate and a New Plymouth constituent.
It’s important that I start this with the clear context that this is in no way, shape or form a knock on the other candidates who are vying for the position of New Plymouth Mayor for the next term. These are simply my own observations throughout this journey as a fellow running mate to all the current candidates.
Local Government elections are in full swing around Aotearoa and while I can’t speak to what’s happening around the entire country, I can speak candidly about what’s happening in my local government district, New Plymouth which extends to the majority of my home region of Taranaki. This is because I, myself, am running as a District Wide Councillor for the New Plymouth District. How does that serve my perspective? Well, this has given me the privilege of having a front row seat to the often great mental-sparring and at times circus-esque marathon that is the Mayoral campaign of 2022. It’s also given me access to these individuals on a personal level but I won’t be sharing any of those conversations with you today.
When I reflect back on the first night of official candidate speaking platforms; August 31st 2022 at the Plymouth International Hotel hosted by Business And Retail Association (BARA) and The Taranaki Chamber of Commerce, I remember the nerves. Not just from me but from multiple candidates both experienced and new. This was evident in the stutters, the shaking of hands holding paper and the blatant address that ‘I didn’t prepare anything’ from more than a few. I myself learned a valuable lesson that night, always come early and get a feel for the crowd. Had I done this that night (instead of arriving just in the knick of time to take the stage) I wouldn’t have been so overwhelmed to tears when I saw all my support as I took the podium to deliver my two minutes.
That’s right, two minutes. Over 30 candidates have to summarise their values, experience (both professional and personal), aspirations and examples into a measly two minutes. What an impossible task - but achieve the impossible, they did. Great orators used their skill and not so great orators used their relatability all in an effort to achieve the aforementioned goals of their delivery. As more and more candidate evenings popped up to be squeezed on to the schedules of those in the running, confidence grew amongst the pack and getting through the two minutes became easy. While most stuck to the same script, a handful grew fangs alongside their confidence and started to learn how to use them.
By weeks two and three of the information evenings, this was particularly noticeable in some of our Mayoral candidates. A journey that started with pleasantries and community focussed solutions in mind, had now turned its attention to the character assassination of our current Mayor, Neil Holdom. From spending too much time out of New Plymouth to alleged negligence for those less fortunate in the recent rate hike - a council wide decision by the way, not just The Mayor - the newly fanged candidates nibbled, gnawed and at times - outright bit. Every question afforded to them, was immediately turned to an ill choice by The Mayor. Implicitly or directly, again and again, week after week - I sit witness to the personal attacks on Neil.
The most shameful part of these shenanigans is watching the community lose. I recall in particular, the meet the candidates night in Waitara on Monday August 19th where stalwart of the Waitara Community Board, Trevor Dodunski, challenged the current councillors on the lack of action and progress in the Waitara area. One Mayoral hopeful, despite being on council for 3 terms, blamed the very council that he is a part of for not listening to him and his ideas and diverted attention again to Neil and a lack of leadership. If others around the table are not willing to work with you after 9 years, perhaps one needs to ask oneself why and adjust tactics or attitude perhaps? The shocker though was when another hopeful arose to accuse the Waitara Community Board for their lack of action, specifically Trevor himself. Needless to say this didn’t go down well with the community in attendance and many unpleasantries were uttered under many breaths.
Admirably though, Neil has held fast to the high road and never addressed the people or the individual directly, instead he tactfully validated the decisions of council actions by referencing the great work that has been achieved by the collaboration between the team. Second term shoe-in, Amanda Clinton-Ghodes (or Clinton-Goddess as I like to say) is a frequent namedrop by His Worship as is Harry Duynhoven in times when he needs to spread the blame or credit - depending how you view it. Neil has often referred to himself as “The Accidental Mayor” but there is nothing accidental about his political prowess and ability to water down the verbal poisons often forced his way.
But amongst the chaotic dust and the thick stench of the scraps, there is a shining light - Dinnie Moeahu. Never resorting to the low-balling of the others and managing to stick to the issues and prioritise community needs, Dinnie's ability to set himself apart from the others by focussing on solutions cannot be overstated. The most noticeable thing, unlike the other hopefuls, Dinnie rarely holds a piece of paper - a clear indication that he is coming in openly and honestly, with no predetermined agenda, to hear and listen to the real issues proposed by each of the communities and with no predetermined agenda. This could be seen as a lack of preparation but if you watch the stream of the Taranaki Daily News Live Mayoral Debate then you will see that Dinnie Moeahu comes prepared in other ways.
Before entering the race to be a district wide councillor I hadn’t even considered the type of leadership that may lead me if I’m lucky enough to be given the opportunity to sit on council. However, this journey along the path to local government is now concluding to a point where this is now an unavoidable thought. Whilst my partnerships and collaborations with Dinnie are not as well documented as people would assume it’s probably no secret that we’ve worked together on many projects and the key to our working together is our acceptance to engage one another on the hard topics. While we often agree on the end game
Dinnie and I, our preferred journeys to destination clash often and clash hard but such as politics: the art of compromise and negotiation we ultimately work to provide a united front.
Neil is almost the opposite, we’ve not collaborated at all - in fact on some projects it’s often felt like we’ve been on opposing sides such as the Māori wards decision from which he abstained. With Neil, lm excited at the untraveled path that lays ahead with us - which feels almost weird to say amongst a popular narrative that he is the stable level headed choice. It’s also worth mentioning that my strengths in story telling, creating community buy in, Te Ao Māori, online business and others would compliment Neils ability to formulate a plan and communicate the key metric milestones of said plan.
Here in Ngāmotu New Plymouth, we have a wide range of choices for council this upcoming term. My hope would be that the two obvious choices for Mayor would consider being a deputy for the other should they not be successful at the top role. With the community in mind, as opposed to personal objectives, the pairing could make quite the tag team. They would challenge one another intensely but with Neils pragmatic documentation and number crunching alongside Dinnie's ability to work with community and effective communication - our district would be all the better for it. Though I know this isn't possible with Neil taking a "Mayor or nothing" approach to this terms elections.
Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence, and inspiration and these two have it in bundles.
1 comment
Well written bro, great snapshot.