We Want A Better Auckland: Debate's Auckland Local Election Endorsements

By the Debate News Team

Voting has begun! Both for the SRC elections on campus and for Auckland Council in this year's local body elections. For the latter, Debate's news team has dug into the background of the candidates running and we're ready to give you our recommendations about who to vote for. For most candidates, our main concern was their track record on tackling the big issues facing Auckland. We gauged their concern for policies that would improve housing affordability, their proclivity to support public transport projects, and their general attitudes on issues that are important to students. If a voting record was available, then we would tend to take that as more indicative of their record than their rhetoric on the campaign trail. We also considered the personal history of the candidates (we Googled them intensely) and took into account their past views (the controversies section of their Wikipedia pages, if they have one).

The list is not exhaustive and we had several close calls in picking. These were the councillor races in Albany, Franklin, and Manurewa-Papakura. In these races, we have not endorsed a full selection of candidates because we believe a vote will likely depend on your personal view on tactical voting and other local issues. In those wards, we recommend you attend a local candidates' event to learn more about how well they'll represent your community and city. The Spinoff has also relaunched its Policy Local tool where candidates are able to be compared – you can find that at policylocal.nz.