It’s quite a feat that the youngest of the Nelson City mayoral candidates acted the most mature and the oldest the least. But, that’s how it played out at the Great Nelson Weekly Mayoral Debate at Kismet Cocktail & Whisky Bar on Sunday night.
Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, 22, was the big winner on the night, according to most in the crowd and those watching online.
While Kerry Neal, 84, started with a few barbs about “men being men” and yearning for a time when “diversity was the Sheila next door” which was met with some groans from the audience.
“How I yearn for the days when we filled the chamber with tobacco smoke, and if that didn’t scare the pesky public out, we would call up the riot squad. That quietened them.”
Moderated by Johny O’Donnell, the debate zeroed in on three key areas – transport, civic investment and housing with a few reader questions thrown in.
The first question of the night was a reader question about microchipping cats, which drew the first round of disagreement amongst the candidates, mainly with Rohan and Matt very supportive, Tim and Kerry only happy to look at the policy if it was supported by the majority of residents and Nick less convinced.
With cats out of the way, it was time to get into a heavier conversation around transport.
Nick said the region is getting just a “teeny fraction” of the $100 million in fuel tax and road user charges that the region is paying.
“What I will not have is Nelson getting crumbs off the table when we’ve got big transport needs.”
He said the Southern Link wasn’t worth talking about while this government was in power so said the focus should be on an extra lane on Whakatu Drive and fixing the lights at Richmond.
Tim claimed to “probably” be the only councillor to cycle to meetings “rain or shine every day for the last nine years” which garnered a snigger from Rohan. Tim is supportive of another arterial route, even “a tunnel through the hill”.
While Kerry said the current bus system is not functioning.
“If you think it is you’re kidding yourself”, and believes the only way forward is the Southern Link.
Rohan said often people advocating for the Southern Link are the same ones who talk about ‘wokeness’.
“They’re the ones ignoring 30 years of evidence that says that building new highways will not relieve congestion.”
Candidates were then questioned on the culture at council which has been described by some as ‘toxic’.
Nick said he would be challenging to council staff. He then dropped that he was polled as “DOC’s favourite minister in 25 years”.
He touched on the bullying allegations before his retirement saying it was an incident where he swore and raised his voice and described it as something he has learned from and deeply regrets.
“I don’t know anybody who’s served 30 years in parliament without some controversy.”
Tim was also grilled on when he pushed a 70-year-old protestor as something he regrets.
He claimed he, himself, has been a victim of bullying, having to tolerate political party bullying around the council table.
This is when the debate got lively. Tim did not take well to the claims Rohan can remain neutral, claiming decisions made around the table very much show Rohan with political party agenda.
“Tim you can make things up but it does not make them true. I have never in my life been told how to vote,” responded Rohan.
Johny then asked if Matt had led a faction this term to which he responded, “no, I don’t believe so”.
Nick brought up Rachel Reese’s failed appointment as president of Local Government NZ.
“What was really destructive was that Matt ran a campaign undermining her all the way.”
Matt said “this last term of council I’ve been something of a bridge builder” before Tim added, “that’s taking the piss”.
Then it was onto housing and civic investment which clarified some candidate’s stances on the library and Kaka Valley.
On housing, Matt’s idea is to “build up”, creating apartments above the city’s car parks. Nick said it needs to be a range of options including apartments, green field development and intensification.
On civic investment, Rohan believes that we need to invest now and that in times of economic challenges it is best to invest.
Tim wants to keep rate rises at the same level as inflation and says future generations do not want to be lumped with debt from this generation.
Quote of the night If the National Party wants to extend an invitation for me to chat with Chris, I’ll gladly take it up.
On civic investment Debt is a very useful tool for making sure that all the people that benefit from a resource pay for the resource. It’s a much bigger cost to not invest now for future generations.
On housing Housing is so much bigger than a single project here and there. We need to focus on solutions.
On transport This is about choice. What we need to do is a whole bunch of programmes that will enable people to get around their city in a range of ways. They are the ones ignoring evidence that new roads do not reduce congestion.
Something you might not know Rohan is an avid Formula 1 fan and after the debate headed to bed before getting up in the middle of the night to catch the Italian Grand Prix.
Quote of the night I don’t think there would be a person in this room that would say Whakatu Drive that was not a substantive step forward.
On civic investment If there was a number one civic investment for me, it is that hugely-exciting proposal of the Cawthron Institute with the port of Nelson to build a world-leading ocean research education environmental centre for New Zealand.
On housing The only answer to housing is getting more houses built.
On transport The Southern Link is not going to happen... putting that back on the agenda is a waste of time.
Something you might not know Represented NZ in table tennis. Nick was the 4th member of the Under 16’s 4 member New Zealand team that played Australia in 1980.
Quote of the night I’ve always stood very clear on my principles. People know where I stand.
On civic investment Library was a bad decision that was made upside-down and I was the only councillor to vote against that going into our Long-Term Plan.
On housing I have concern we are putting too much to Housing NZ and not using local providers. A priority of mine is putting more support to those providers.
On transport We do need another route, that’s become clear over the past few weeks, whether it’s a tunnel under the hill... all this flowery talk about adding lanes is not going to produce a result. You need the roads to get to football games.
Something you might not know In his 20s Tim was represented by a modelling agency, where he was cast in an advertising campaign as an Air New Zealand pilot.
Quote of the night This last term of council I’ve been something of a bridge builder.
On civic investment Any city, any business for that matter, that doesn’t invest goes backwards.
On housing For me, the Maitai is a taonga I want it to be protected for future generations. I don’t believe you protect things that are precious by increasingly sprawling into your valleys. We’ve got to go up.
On transport We don’t need another arterial route... If we have people stuck in traffic feeling miserable, we kind of lose one of our superpowers which is quality of life.
Something you might not know As a small boy Matt once jammed a toast crust so far up his nose, he had to go to hospital to have it removed. It was Vogels, in case anyone was wondering…
Quote of the night How I yearn for the days when we filled the chamber with tobacco smoke, and if that didn’t scare the pesky public out, we would call up the riot squad.
On civic investment I really have trouble giving any confidence that I can see any possibility of any major civic-funded amenity for here on for quite a while.
On housing We would put our boots on in the morning and we would go out and build a house, sometimes we’d say ‘oh heck we haven’t got a permit’, because we knew what we were doing...
On transport There’s only one thing to do that’s another road, there’s only one place for it and that’s the Southern Link.
Something you might not know Out of exasperation a current councillor (Mel Courtney) used to refer to Kerry as “The Ayatollah of Atawhai”.
Publisher Andrew Board answers, Why we do the debate?
Three years ago, former Nelson Weekly editor Charles Anderson and I were chatting about the up-coming local body elections.
Engagement at the previous election in 2016 was a dismal 52% and we wanted to create more excitement around the elections.
We tossed around a bunch of ideas on how to do this but settled on a debate for the mayoral candidates. In my years as a journalist covering the Nelson and Tasman elections, I’d been to plenty of ‘meet the candidate’ events. Often in a large hall with a smattering of people listening to candidates speak for three minutes uninterrupted.
We did not want that.
The inspiration for our debate was the Back Bencher television show where politicians were interviewed at a packed pub in Wellington. It sometimes got rowdy, and the candidates were immediately called out if they said something marginal. So, we decided to replicate it.
Charles hosted the debate at the Workshop pub, and it turned out to be a huge success and we had a lot of positive feedback. When we were asked if we were going to do the same for the general elections the following year, we thought ‘why not?’
That too was well-received, and it felt like we’d started something that was important and that we had to continue.
And so, once again, we went to work to create this year’s mayoral debate, this time with a new moderator and a new venue.
Charles took up an opportunity to live and work in the United States and neither I nor our new editor Sara Hollyman felt like we had the experience to moderate. So we called in Johny O’Donnell, who picked up where Charles left off in delivering a great debate.
Kismet played host this time around and it created an intimate atmosphere that we were after. We wanted the candidates to feel under pressure and I think they did. So, getting back to the question in the headline, why do we host this debate?
Simply, Nelson is an incredible place to live but we want it to be better, so picking the right candidate to lead our city is important. Our goal isn’t to tell you who the right candidate is, it’s to help you decide who the right candidate is for you.
If the debate helped you make up your mind, then it succeeded in its goal.
Footnote: A huge thanks to the five invited candidates for coming along and taking part. There were two candidates that we didn’t invite, John Wakelin and Richard Osmaston due to space and timing issues. Please seek out information on both of these candidates before casting your vote.
Finally, thank you to Johny O’Donnell for moderating the debate, Nick and Kymberly Widley for hosting the debate at their bar. Dave Evans from NakedEye for filming and JR Robinson at VenueTech for the sound work. Also, to the Nelson Weekly team for making it happen.
