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Download AudioRetiring Auckland mayor Phil Goff says the way to boost turnout and make council elections more relevant shifting is shifting more putea and decision-making from central to local government.
Turnout for the super city elections varies between 35 and 40 percent, with the Māori participation rate even lower.
“If you make the role of local government more important, for example, you devolve funding so the decisions are made locally rather than the local government having to go cap in hand to the central government, that would probably send the message to the community ‘vote because these guys have real money they are spending it in our community,'” he says
Mayor Goff says the last election he did 43 public meetings with challenger John Tamihere without any significant increase in turnout.
He’d also like to see electronic voting, as young people probably don’t know what a post box is.
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