STEPHEN BERRY’S GUIDE TO THE 2022 AUCKLAND LOCAL ELECTION VOTING GUIDES
“They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and, following the Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections 2019, there are plenty of imitations popping up on the internet in 2022,” says political commentator and 2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate Stephen Berry. “However, a bit like that Rolex you bought from a market stall in Thailand, they pale in comparison to the original.”
This election, Stephen Berry has topped his 2019 Voting Guide, with a 2022 version that investigates, googles and reviews policy and personalities to provide ratings for each of the 503 candidates standing for Waitakere & Portage Licensing Trust, every Council ward, every Local Board and all Mayoral candidates.
“Despite growing competition, the Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections 2022 remains the largest, most comprehensive voting guide in New Zealand political history.”
The Voting Guide is exclusively available to Silver Members and above on thebfd.co.nz. A Silver Membership provides access to:
- All 15 articles in the Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections 2022.
- Access to premium Insight: Politics articles five days a week from writers including Stephen Berry, commentator Chris Trotter, author John Black, former NBR business journalist Nathan Smith and more.
- Adfree access to the site.
- Access to separate platform MyBFD.
- Daily Crossword, Sudoku and Codecracker
- Exclusive cartoons by SonovaMin and Boomslang.
- Podcasts.
- Access to Insight: Politics polling.
After investing 130 hours writing the Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections 2022, Stephen Berry believes that no other can compete and here’s why:
THE GUIDE TO THE 2022 AUCKLAND LOCAL ELECTION VOTING GUIDES
Trusts Action Group Licensing Trust Election Guide
Unsurprisingly, the primary goal of this voting guide is to advertise that multiple Trust Action Group candidates are standing for the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts. It also features responses from other candidates who have filled in the Trusts Action Group’ survey, which is very few. In any case, asking candidates to respond to a survey has zero quality control. The Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trust contest contains thirteen candidates I have rated from 3 X to 5 X out of 5 X, but hardly any of these incompetent candidates are identified in this voting guide.
It also covers just two contests, whereas the Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections covers 36.
Policy.nz
This offering from The Spinoff is quantity over quality. It covers every race in the entire country but it relies on candidate participation to be effective which is why it fails dismally. If candidates do not put any information about themselves on the website, then there will not be any information about them.
Additionally, all it does is replicate information uploaded by the candidates. There is no quality control, no vetting of policy for practicality or possibility. It’s essentially every election candidate’s statement if they bother to participate. As of 16 September, only 1356 out of 3409 (39.8%) have bothered.
NZ Herald Councillor Ratings
Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson give their ratings of Auckland Councillor’s performance over the past three years. Two of those Councillors are retiring from politics this year, with another standing for the Mayoralty only. It doesn’t mention any of the non-incumbent candidates at all.
Not worth buying NZ Herald Premium for.
Howtovote.nz
This offering from the Taxpayer’s Union is also rather unhelpful. A grand total of 32 out of 86 Mayoral and Council candidates (37.2%) have participated in the survey to be included on the site.
All 32 candidates have received a green tick on the issue of rates for supporting either
- No rates increases
- 3% maximum rates increase
- 5% maximum rates increase
- No rates increases above annual inflation rate.
From the Mayoral respondents, 1 received a 2 clown rating in my guide, 2 received a 3 clown rating and 3 received a 5 out of 5 clown rating.
You run a serious risk of voting for a complete clown, even if you want to support centre-right candidates, should you rely on this voting guide.
The Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections 2022 outdoes every one of these voting guides because it explicitly investigates each candidate’s claims, tells readers whether their promises are practical or completely impossible and advises who actually deserves your vote. Don’t be taken in by cheap imitations, check out the Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections 2022 before you cast your vote!
Stephen Berry
Author, Absolutely Biased Guide to Auckland Local Elections