Editorial: #BassistsInCouncil2025

EDITORIAL | TANGATA WHENUA / LOCAL

Written by Liam Hansen (they/them) | @liamhanse.n | Editor-in-Chief

Illustrated by Stella Roper (they/she) | @dodofrenzy | ARTS EDITOR

I’m going to start this issue off, which is dedicated to Tāmaki Makaurau and local politics, in Christchurch. About a month and a half ago, I found myself in Ōtautahi on a whim as my partner attended to real-world responsibilities and I kicked about looking for a new jacket. This was my third or fourth time in the garden city, and despite it being a flat and monochromatic ice plain, I’ve fallen deeply in love with Ōtautahi at its best. A lot of the food is fantastic, the air is fresh, and Lyttleton is only a twenty-minute drive away, making up the Canterbury music mega-bubble that has managed to produce some of the best musicians from our country. While Ōhinehou gets to take credit for Marlon Williams, Delaney Davidson, Aldous Harding and Ben Woods, the relatively big smoke has its own share of brilliant musicians too - Pickle Darling, Mousey, and a whole host of emo bands like This Dog, Only You, and my beloved Model Home. 

If you were at the PUP show at the Tuning Fork a couple of weeks ago, you’ll know why I love Model Home so much - if nothing else, because I kept egging them on from the side of the stage. Their lyrics consist of descriptive anecdotes dedicated to suburban Aotearoa, backed by driving drums, twinkly guitars, cathartic vocals, and - importantly - basslines that cut through the mix, carefully punctuating each step of the beat and taking care of the rest of the band through support and reassurance. Seems like the kinda guy you’d want running for council, no? 

Tom Roud, Model Home’s bassist and current librarian/union delegate, managed to get his campaign onto my radar before I had figured out who was challenging Wayne Brown in Tāmaki Makaurau (we’ll get to that later in this issue, don’t worry!). He’s running a two-ticks campaign to become a Christchurch City Councillor and join the Central Ward Community Board through the Alliance Party - which, unless you’re a kiwi leftist over thirty, you’re likely unfamiliar with. 

“The Alliance Party was active in New Zealand politics from the early ’90s through to the mid-2000s. It hasn’t been very active recently, but I’m the first candidate they’ve put up in about 11 years.”, Tom tells me from the Christchurch BNZ centre. Why the resurrection? Initially, it wasn’t the plan; “Me and a bunch of my friends who have been doing this politics stuff have thought for a while about how to relaunch a more combative or strident left, and we came to the conclusion that you probably have to start from scratch. The Alliance side of it really came along as a serendipitous situation. Any movement of this kind worth its salt isn’t going to have a bunch of financial backing. It’s going to need a lot of people power. That was a big part of it.” 

Just like how Tom’s basslines cut through the mix, his policies and election run have already started gaining traction with a clear focus on embracing his community. Later in the week, from when I caught up with him, Tom officially launched the campaign with a gig at Space Academy starring aforementioned Ōtautahi music stalwarts like Pickle Darling, This Dog, and The Eastern. This not only helped raise awareness of his campaign within Christchurch’s arts community, but also highlighted key policies on local government music regulations. “We’ve got venue noise issues here, and Plan Change 21 is under consultation, which is promising. But music policy isn’t just about noise - it’s about infrastructure. Can bands unload gear easily? Can people get to and from venues safely?” 

Obviously, Tom was preaching to a choir. If you’ve read any of my shit in this magazine, you know I’ll go to bat for any boring music policy that allows cool music stuff to happen across our cities. Given that most council candidates' arts and culture policies equate to a resounding “suh, dude!”, I'm naturally going to gain a bias toward someone waving an ounce of support in front of the music community's face. But I do think it opens up a wider conversation about how the attention of young voters can be cultivated through grassroots community events and no-bullshit policies. We saw Zohran Mamadani go from a political nobody outside of his city to the internationally recognised democratic candidate for the New York City Mayor, and I became aware of his campaign in the same way you probably did - a steady stream of high-quality campaign reels with occasional shitposts making their way into my explore feed. 

Up here in Auckland, and almost everywhere else in the country that doesn't have a mayoral candidate who dabbed on parliament steps, the council elections have remained stale so far. This isn’t necessarily to blame the mayoral candidates themselves, nor their marketing teams - it’s rather a trend of low engagement continuing onwards, only worsened by the conservative-swung anglophonic politicians making such inanely evil decisions that engaging with politics feels like an act of self-harm. The hope of young voters has been pummeled out of them for a year and a half, and with the government making sure that voting is as inaccessible as possible by cutting off election enrollment dates, it seems like that was the plan all along. 

The suppression of voting rights and intentional disengagement from the government are powerful reasons for young people to make sure that their voice is heard in local politics. Every time an obscenely offensive comment made by Winston Peters gets brushed off, you need to turn your rage and bitterness into direct action - even if it’s for no reason other than spite. We’re kicking off the korero about what to expect in the Auckland Council elections later this issue, and will keep you all posted as our final few issues of the year make their way through the stands. In the meantime, you can practice your civic duty by reading about and voting in the upcoming AUTSA SRC elections - this’ll dictate who the AUT Student President is for the next two years, and how they’ll steer the ship. Even without all that, the Local issue has you covered with reflections from the New Zealand International Film Festival, niche sports playable across Auckland, and the usual stuff as well. 

We’re getting towards the end of the year now, gang - trust me, I feel like I’m piloting a corpse as well, but the sun is starting to return, and the flowers are starting to bloom. I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to manage.