In 2019, I embarked on the most ambitious voting guide in New Zealand political history. This enormous project fell a little short as I completed it while working full time and also being active on the ACT Party Board of Directors.
In 2022, I am dedicating myself to this project full-time and I will complete the most ambitious voting guide in New Zealand political history, exceeding my efforts in the 2019 election. The entire guide is available exclusively to Silver Members on thebfd.co.nz. Candidate statements will start to be available on the Auckland Council website from mid-August and that is when I will commence publishing the voting guide, ward by ward.
There are 21 candidates standing for Mayor of Auckland, 64 candidates for Council, 376 candidates for Local Boards and 34 candidates for the Portage and Waitakere Licencing Trusts. The Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections 2022 will review and rate every single candidate and I will recommend the candidates that deserve your vote.
Voter turnout in local body elections is poor and it continues to get worse. In 2019, just 34.7% of eligible voters cast their vote. Ignorance of who the candidates are and the functions of the bodies they are standing for seems to be the primary reason for people choosing not to vote.
It’s a free country and, unlike Australia, you don’t have to vote if you don’t want to. Indeed, if you’re not interested, it is probably better that you don’t. However, if a lack of awareness about candidates is holding you back, I’m here to help.
This isn’t a politically neutral guide to how the democratic process works. This is an unashamedly biased guide on who I think the best candidates are and who I think you should vote for.
I’ll be rating candidates based on policy (rates, quality spending, affordable housing solutions, respect for property rights, sticking to core council functions), experience, understanding of how Council works and general sanity. My ratings scale will be from:
$ (big government socialist) to $$$$$ (small government reformer).
For some, only a clown rating will do (and some will get more than one).
Many candidates put their names forward for election without understanding how local government works and make promises they can’t possibly deliver. Ratings for those candidates will reflect such ignorance.
If you don’t like my recommendations, that’s fine! They’re just suggestions. You don’t have to actually follow them…