‘Backsides’ voted but fireworks are likely with one Hamilton councillor – Richard Swainson – Stuff

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Council elections show that more than 70% percent of us just don't care, Richard Swainson writes (file photo).

Dr Richard Swainson runs Hamilton's last DVD rental store and is a weekly contributor to the Waikato Times history page.

OPINION: The people have spoken. It was a resounding whisper. Or perhaps a squeak. When it came to engagement with local body politics, still less participation in the voting process to determine city and regional councils, the vast majority spoke with their backsides, preferring to remain at home. The day before polling closed, only 23.2% of eligible Hamiltonians had bothered to exercise their franchise. Even allowing for a flurry of late-in-the-day hand delivery - a category I myself fell into, I should confess - and special votes, for those who had mislaid their papers and had a last minute change of heart, indifference was the predominant response. More than 70% of us just don't care.

Vladimir Putin could have been elected and the good folk of the Waikato would not have batted an eyelid. An unlikely scenario, of course, as the latter-day 'Vlad the Impaler' would have his eyes on the chief executive's job, where the real power lies and the salary vastly exceeds anything elected representatives could dream of being paid. It is a point that was made rather starkly back in 2007 when Michael Redman gave up the Hamilton mayoralty for the opportunity to serve the community as an impartial bureaucrat. Luckily the result was just millions of dollars lost in the V8 debacle, not an invasion of the Ukraine.

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There are perils to the good folk of Hamilton not paying attention to local politics, Swainson says.

Pardon my digression. Extreme, highly improbable examples are needed to remind us all of the perils of not paying attention. Much of the media coverage of the 2022 elections was in this vein, looking to out the nutters and the conspiracy theorists and the anti-vaxxers, if not those whose transgressions were of a more ideological bent. Perish the thought that the politically incorrect might sneak in the back door, holding unpublishable views or expressing themselves in a vernacular unbecoming today's political discourse. The likes of Russ Rimmington, whose 'cultural ignorance' did actually see the electorate give him the cold shoulder. Voters forgave Russ when the then Hamilton mayor - and Justice of the Peace - incurred a dangerous driving fine and licence disqualification back in 2000 but a response to the Three Waters reforms that saw him talk of how "the Mori" will "usurp" and "jeopardise" the future development of "our country" was beyond the pale and he was denied his Waikato Regional Council paycheck. Twenty three point two percent of us put the horrid racist in his place.

READ MORE:* Nothing 'cruisy' in forecast for Hamilton's re-elected mayor Paula Southgate* He called council staff 'scum' - now he's been elected to work with them* Southgate back in Hamilton but other leaders ousted, including Quayle, Rimmington and Mylchreest

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Paula Southgate is thankful to be Hamilton's mayor for another three years and praised all those who ran for election because "it's not easy". (This video was first published on October 9, 2022).

On the other hand, another gentleman with a history of speaking plainly to power has just been elected to the Hamilton City Council and I, for one, am looking forward to the fireworks. Andrew Bydder's robust response to bureaucracy, once labelling the Waip Council staff as "scum" and "disgusting filth" whilst accusing them of corruption and racism, suggests a politician who will not easily be hoodwinked by voluminous agendas and the obsequious wiles of the governing class. Perhaps Bydder is exactly what the HCC needs: a pragmatic doer, long frustrated with red tape and the indifference the obscenely over-salaried often show to legitimate complaints.

Bydder's election might not be what Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta meant when employing that quintessential 21st century buzzword, "diversity", by way of talking up election results, yet in the truest sense of the term it is. Assessing politicians on their skills, their ideological bias and their effectiveness is what democracy should be about, not gender, age, ethnicity, sexuality or religion. Local bodies which reflect the actual community's range of views - across the political spectrum, including extremes which some may find unacceptable - are truly diverse. Other assessments tend toward the superficial. A woman mayor may not be feminist in the eyes of her opponents. A Mori politician could well represent the ACT party.

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Newly elected Hamilton City councillor Andrew Bydder once labelled the Waip Council staff as "scum" and "disgusting filth" whilst accusing them of corruption and racism.

That said, there is no mistaking the generational and gender shift on the Hamilton City Council. The retirement of veterans Martin Gallagher, Dave Macpherson and Rob Pascoe, together with that of Mark Bunting, a somewhat less experienced player, amounted to an exodus of the type of politicians woke analysts like to sneer at: the "stale, pale male" stereotype, long of tooth, pinky-white of complexion, who have overstayed their welcome. No matter of course that Gallagher and Macpherson at least were rather progressive types, fine servants of metropolis.

Fresh to council chambers are Emma Pike and Louise Hutt, comparatively youthful, with idealism still intact. When taken together with returned mayor Paula Southgate, stalwart Angela O'Leary, the impressive Sarah Thomson and the equally estrogen-charged Anna Casey-Cox, Maxine Van Ooosten and Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, not to mention the city's first wahine elected via the Kirikiriroa Mori Ward, Te Pora Thompson, city hall has all the makings of a matriarchy. Women outnumber men nine to five and the mean average age of councillors has come down several notches.

Kelly Hodel/Stuff

Swainson hopes the new council will save Hamilton's Founders Theatre from the wrecking ball.

What can we expect from a feminist, young-in-parts council? Climate change action would seem to be high on Hutt's agenda and in this there will be a natural ally in Thomson and at least lip service paid by others.

Speaking personally, I hope the new administration has the courage to save the Founders Theatre from the wrecking ball, a move in the interests of both the environment and a wider cultural community desperate for meaningful, shared space. The decimation of Hamilton heritage buildings accelerated under the last council, with the boom lowered on the Municipal Pools, the effective destruction of the Hamilton Hotel and goodness knows what alterations planned for the ArtsPost building. Having done their worst in Hamilton East, the bulldozers creep up Victoria St, emboldened by policies that first ignore the duty of maintenance then glibly dispense of edifices in which generations of Hamiltonians have emotional investment.

The extent to which such policies are driven by the unelected is something a fresh pair of eyes might be more sensitive to than those too long around the council table. In this, I wish Mr Bydder every success.

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'Backsides' voted but fireworks are likely with one Hamilton councillor - Richard Swainson - Stuff