On Natures Edge - Tuatapere

Tuatapere - a community living on natures edge

Community Outlook: 20-06-23

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Council Meeting: 06 June 2023

Brief points:

  • 2 Community Board members were absent from the meeting.
  • The Hauroko Valley Primary School student leaders from year 8 (and Mrs Waikato, Principle) made wonderful presentations to the Board sharing details of what the students have been up to.
  • The Board decided on funding for applications made to the Community Partnership Fund and allocated funds to the Tuatapere Pool from the Pool Rate Reserves.
  • No other decisions were made at the meeting.
  • Voting System for 2025 Local Government Elections was briefly discussed.

Next meeting: 3:30pm, Tuesday 8 August at Waiau Town and Country Club.

Voting System (Local Government Elections)

Council will be asking for Community views on the Local Government Election voting system via the Council “Make it Stick” website. No detail on how those without Internet access are to present their views at this time.

The options are to stay with the current system, “First Past the Post” (FPP), or change to a “Single Transferable Vote” (STV) system for the election of the Mayor, Councillors, and Community Board members for the 2025 elections.

Unfortunately, I’ve heard both Council Staff and Councillors describe the STV system incorrectly, and some detail provided on the Council “Make it Stick” website appears to be very poorly worded or incorrect. As with most ‘new’ things, it can take a little while to gain full understanding.

The New Zealand Government has a website that describes the STV system and provides a number of examples of how the STV system works, it can be found at www.stv.govt.nz.

The following is a list of Councils that used the STV system in 2022: Kaipara, Tauranga, Ruapehu, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Kapiti Coast, Porirua, Wellington, Greater Wellington, Marlborough, Dunedin, Far North, Gisborne, Hamilton, Nelson.

Almost all of Australia’s voting systems are based on preferential voting, many are a variation of the NZ STV system.

Why change? The FPP system often does not result in what the majority of voters want, however it is a very simple system. The STV system uses preferential voting, requiring voters to rank candidates in order of preference. A quota system is used to distribute preferences, which can be difficult to understand, and is best determined using a computer system. However, the STV system produces results that are representative of what voters want and tends to be a fairer system.

If you are interested, please take the time to read through the details on the Government website www.stv.govt.nz to understand the STV system better and perhaps provide your views to Council via the Council “Make it Stick” website. If you want further information, I’m happy to try to provide it, email me at info@onnaturesedge.co.nz.

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