Back to Recordings of candidate information sessions and slideshows.
[The first slide reads 'Become a candidate in Auckland’s Elections 2025’. This changes to an ‘Overview’ slide and lists the topics the webinar will cover. These include: local elections - what are they, why do they matter, our governance structure - how does the council work, roles you can stand for - what do they do, how much do they earn; becoming a candidate - who can do it, what's required; how to campaign - do's and don'ts, how much does it cost.]
Elodie: "Tēnā koutou. Thank you for joining us today in this info session on becoming a candidate in the Auckland local elections. First we'll start with some introductions. I'm Elodie Fontaine. I'm the Elections Program Manager at Auckland Council. I have with me tonight, Dale Ofsoske, who is our Electoral Officer and manager of Independent Election Services."
"Dale will help answer your questions with me tonight. I also have online Rhiannon Guinness who works with me in the elections team and will help monitor the Q and A. This session is being recorded so we can make it available online on our Vote Auckland website, so you'll be able to go back to it and watch it again."
[New slide appears with a blue bubble with 'Auckland local elections and Auckland Council', while the Sky Tower and Viaduct Harbour can be seen in the distance. Webinar speaker, Elodie Fontaine appears in a little window on the right side of the online presentation.]
"If there's anything you'd like to view again, if you have any questions, please pop them in the Q and A section of this meeting and we will answer them at the end of the presentation. In terms of what we'll be covering today, we'll start with just setting the scene. So we'll talk about what local elections are and why they matter.
"And we'll also talk about Auckland Council and how it works. We have quite a unique governance structure, so if you're considering standing and being a part of that governance structure, it's important to understand how it actually works. We'll then go through the different roles that you can stand for."
"What those different roles do, and also importantly how much they earn. We will then go through the logistics of becoming a candidate, the nominations process, who can do it and what's required. And then we'll go through how to campaign the kind of do's and don'ts and also how much it costs. So first off, Auckland local elections and how Auckland Council works."
[The next slide is 'Local elections overview' and shows a summary of this information in bullet points.]
"So local elections in New Zealand occur every three years by postal vote. In Auckland, voters will vote for a mayor, 20 councillors that will be elected across 13 wards and 151 local board members that are elected across 21 local boards. So that is over 170 people that get elected at this election and that become part of the Auckland Council governance structure and make decisions for Auckland."
[An infographic of Auckland Council’s governance structure appears, demonstrating relationships between 21 local boards that are made up of 149 members who contribute to local decisions and the Governing Body which is made up of the mayor and 20 councillors who make regional decisions.]
[In the lower half of the graphic under management of policy, planning and service delivery, implementing elected members’ decisions and providing them support and advice is the Auckland Council organisation and council-controlled organisations. Running parallel to the right are Houkura (formerly known as the Independent Māori Statutory Board), co-governance entities and council-controlled organisations’ boards.]
"Now, how does this work? This is a picture that tries to summarise the Auckland Council structure. We have what we call a shared governance model. What that means is that our elected model, our elected members are shared between two different decision making parts. Each part works autonomously to make decisions within their areas of responsibility, but they obviously have got a very close working relationship."
"So on the right hand side here, in this picture, we've got the Governing Body. The Governing Body is made up of the mayor and the 20 councillors, and their focus really is on the big picture and the regionwide strategic decisions. On the other side, we've got the local boards. So local boards, we have 21 of them."
"Some have got subdivisions, some don't. Each local board has between five and nine members, and there's a total of recently following a representation review. 151 members. Those local board members represent the communities in the local area and they make decisions on local issues, local activities, local facilities, but they obviously provide input as well into those regionwide decisions that the Governing Body makes."
"All of those decisions made at the political level with our governors have got a relationship as well with the Auckland Council organisation. So the Auckland Council as an organisation has its chief executive and its kind of leadership group that also make decisions with regards to some of the council, how the council implements the decisions made at the political level."
[Next slide says 'Why do local elections matter? Auckland's elected members make decisions that impact Aucklanders every day.' This slide is illustrated with decorative icons representing rubbish and recycling collection, building and planning consents, local and regional parks, pool and leisure facilities, roads, water distribution, beaches and libraries.]
"Now, another important question that we often get answered is, why do local elections matter? It can be easy to think that elected members are people who just set rates, but it's actually much more important than that because there is no level of government in New Zealand that is more directly involved in the day-to-day happenings of your local community."
"So our local elected members make decisions on the range of things that impact Aucklanders on an everyday basis. So that includes the provision of public transport and cycle lanes the way rubbish is collected. That includes the play spaces we create for children, you know, shade sails and other play equipment in the local parks."
"It's to do with rules about walking your dog. It's about the quality of water that comes from your tap, but also that's at your local beach. It's about the city's economic development investment for really important infrastructure, flood recovery. It's also about things like your local libraries, your pool and leisure centres, how much these things cost, how long they are open and then everything else, you know, cultural and family and sporting events that take place across Auckland."
[New slide with the title ‘Why Stand?’, and an orange embedded video link shows on the screen]
"How, you know, building checks, building consents and building checks, restaurant health rules, alcohol licenses, and much more. So you might be wondering why stand, and some of you will have obviously a reason already of why you want to do this, but in case you're a little bit on the edge and not quite sure why you would do this, it's important to remember that this would be an opportunity to take on a critical leadership role for your community and for Auckland as a whole."
"And to bring your unique talents and perspective basically to contribute to the future of our city. Being an elected member in Auckland Council is being involved in major decisions for our very large growing region. So that touches on future infrastructure needs, how to drive value for money for Aucklanders and also how to manage the council assets."
"So we've got assets worth $42 billion. This could also be part of your journey as you develop, as a governance professional or a community leader. But better than me talking about this. Let's hear now from some of our people, from some people involved in our communities, and what they think about this?"
[The embedded video plays on the screen, showing a bright orange background and the words ‘What qualities do you need to stand? Auckland Local Elections 2025, From a community perspective.’]
[A video plays on screen of a variety of people being interviewed. Firstly a man in a park on a sunny day, his name appears at the bottom of the screen; ‘Andrew – Conservation Officer, Conservation Volunteers of New Zealand’. Second, a man at a tennis court, his name appears at the bottom of the screen; ‘Rohan – CEO Tennis Auckland. Third is a woman in an outdoor greenhouse, her name appears at the bottom of the screen; ‘Carla – CEO Ecomatters Environment Trust.]
"The qualities that I'd love to see from our elected members, vision, passion, a can-do attitude and pragmatism. And they absolutely need to be able to build consensus to get decisions made."
[A bright orange slide shows on screen with the words ‘Why stand for council?’]
[The video continues on screen, once again showing a variety of people being interviewed. Firstly, a man in a park on a sunny day. Then, a man standing in front of a community patrol car, his name appears at the bottom of the screen; ‘Rod – Founder Epsom Community Patrols’.]
"Elected members are essential for Auckland because a wide range of perspectives is needed to guide our governance. They represent the people of that community. They know the communities, they know the issues. And I think it's a very, very good model, a very important model to encourage local people to stand for their local bodies."
[A bright orange slide shows on screen with the words ‘How have elected members supported our communities?’]
[The video continues on screen, once again showing a variety of people being interviewed. Firstly, a man standing in front of a community patrol car, then, a woman in an outdoor greenhouse. The video then shows the front entrance of the Eco Matters Hub and Store, which is painted black with murals of native New Zealand birds.]
"We've worked very closely with elected members from around the community here. The first bike hub started in New Lynn, and we now have a network that covers the whole of the city."
[The video returns to the interview: a man on a tennis court, and then shifts to a sign on the side of a building that says ‘Nicholson Park Tennis Courts’. The video shifts to two women playing a game of tennis]
"Our local board members being able to see our vision, we have worked with elected members on many projects across the city, and we're standing in one right now, and that is Nicholson Park in Mount Eden."
[A bright orange slide shows on screen with the words ‘What was achieved with the help of elected members?’ The video continues showing outdoor planting next to a stream, shifting to a community patrol car driving in a car park and a man walking along a pathway next to a large brick retaining wall.]
Man: "This facility here, we worked very closely with the Albert Eden Local Board. Elected members have funded The planting of the Papakura Stream, we've planted 127,000 trees to date. We are looking to grow our voluntary base. We're currently sitting at just on 35 volunteers, and we've all got an understanding to help try and make our community safer. Without their support, we cannot achieve our objectives."
[The video shifts to a quartered screen showing all four interviewees standing with their arms crossed in each quarter of the screen.]
[The video ends showing a white slide, with the Auckland Council Logo, the words ‘Altogether Auckland. Tamaki Turiki.’ And the website ‘voteauckland.co.nz. The video ends and the presentation continues with a slide showing a crowd standing behind a fence, with a blue bubble reading 'Roles you can stand for.']
[Slide shows the key mayor information summarised in a bullet list.]
Elodie: "We've covered what local elections are and, and kind of very broadly why they matter. We'll go through more detail on the different roles that you can stand for in this election. The first one is the mayor. So some of the mayor's key responsibilities include setting the direction for Auckland and leading the Governing Body."
"So the mayor appoints the deputy mayor, establishes all of the committees and appoints chairs for each committee. He or she also leads the development of council plans, policies and budgets. And engages with the council organisation and with the people of Auckland. The mayor really becomes the face of this Auckland governance in terms of time commitment."
[New slide with 'ward councillors' in a yellow bubble on the left and a bulleted list, detailing the ward councillors' main responsibilities on the right.]
"It's obviously a very significant professional and personal commitment, it's a full-time role and there's a lot of after hours and weekend commitment required as well. We then have the ward councillors. So there are, 20 ward councillors. As I mentioned earlier, 20 ward councillors elected across 13 wards."
"Key responsibilities of the councillors include: making decisions on regional plans and issues. This is mostly done through official Governing Body and committee meetings, so that's a lot of the time of those ward councillors, preparing and attending meetings. So it's reading agendas and reports, attending workshops, all of that to really understand the crux of the issue, the community views on those issues and then kind of decide what decision they need to make for the best of all involved."
"A lot of their work also involves attending public events and engaging with the public, liaising with residents and community groups, hearing complaints and questions and queries from their constituents. A large part of their role is also to work alongside the local board or local boards. 'cause in some cases a councillor has got multiple boards that they represent."
"So they work alongside those local boards to make sure that the local issues are heard and represented at the regional table and that they can answer, query and vice versa. All ward councillors can take on additional responsibilities so they can become a deputy mayor or chair a committee, take care of a certain portfolio of topics, et cetera".
[New slide with a local board member in a green bubble on the left and a bulleted list, detailing the local board member's main responsibilities on the right.]
"In terms of time commitment, it is also a full-time role of 40 hours per week and it also requires significant professional and personal commitment. Finally, we have the local board members. So some of the key responsibilities of local board members involve primarily engaging with the local community and providing local leadership."
"It's about making decisions on local matters, so that could include developing and adopting local board plans, proposing local bylaws or local targeted rates. They also contribute and provide input into regional strategies and policies and decisions made by the Governing Body. And within the local boards there can be different roles as well. So some members can be appointed chair or deputy chair and some can also take on specific portfolios. So they could be looking after the local events or the local part specifically in terms of time commitment for local board members and the deputy chair, it's a part-time role, so it's considered to be between 12 to 30 hours a week of time commitment."
"The chair of the local board though is a full-time role. It can be really interesting for people who consider standing to get a bit more of an idea of what the role is like and what the responsibilities entail. By reading some of the agendas that go to the local board and to the Governing Body for decisions, that gives you a real idea of what kind of decision you might be called to make."
"If you do get elected, you can read all of those documents online and you can also view the meetings, you can view the political meetings to get an idea of how those decisions get made, what kind of conversations happen, what kind of information you receive from council staff, what kind of community input you might be presented with and so forth."
[New slide shows, titled ‘How much do elected members get paid’, with a bulleted list, detailing the remuneration for each elected member position]
"So that's, that's probably a good way of getting prepared as well for what your role might be if you're successful when standing for election. An important thing is that elected members do get paid. We have a lot of people that mistakenly think this is a voluntary role. It is not. It is a real job that gets a salary."
"Elected members are self-employed and get paid an annual salary. So that means they have to pay things like ACC levies, for instance. It's really important to know as well that the council does not set the salary of its elected members. This is decided by an independent agency called the Remuneration Authority, and they set the remuneration of elected members based on the expected time and work commitment of each role and also the size and the population of the area that those members represent."
"So there's different pay for different areas, so, elected members in Auckland do not get paid the same as elected members in other areas of New Zealand and different local boards have different pays because of the size and the population that they do represent. Every year on the 30th of June, the authority reviews the pay. So the figures we are looking at here are accurate as of now, but by the time this next selection comes around in October, the pay for those future members will be slightly different. Elected members can also claim expenses for things that they incur as part of their official council role."
"So that could include travel costs or petrol costs, internet access, and the likes. Uh, very important to know that these expenses are firstly subject to approval as per our elected members' expense policy. So do not think that elected members can claim just about anything. It always goes through an approval and there are very clear criteria about what does qualify as an expense that can be claimed for."
"And also this is public information. So all of our elected members' expenses get published monthly in a report that's available online. So, anyone, any member of the public can see what our elected members claim as part of their role in council. Now we'll go through what each of the roles get paid."
"So as I mentioned, these figures are accurate as of now, but following this year's review that will take place in June, these numbers will be slightly changed. So by the time the election comes around, the future members will have a slightly different salary. The mayor obviously having the biggest role, gets the biggest pay that's at this moment, $306,000 a year.
"Councillors, the pay varies based on the responsibilities. So the deputy mayor gets paid more, the chair of certain committee gets paid more so the pay for a councillor will vary from about $111,000 to just under $170,000 a year. And for local boards, the pay, as I mentioned, will vary based on the size of the areas."
"Some local boards are much bigger and much more populated than others. The pay also changes depending on the role within the local board. So a member that has got a part-time role will be paid less than a deputy chair that has got a slightly busier role and paid less than a chair that works full time and takes on the biggest responsibilities on behalf of the board."
"So there, the pay for members will vary from $31,000 to $55,000. So the $31,000 would be for the smaller board and then $55,000 is for the larger boards. The pay for deputy chairs varies from $37,000 through to $67,000. And the pay for chairs goes from $62,000 through to $111,000 a year. All of the detail is available on the council website."
"So if you go to the Auckland Council website and search 'remuneration', you will get to a page that will give you the exact dollar annual salary for each single role. So that would be Albert Eden Local Board member, deputy chair, chair. So if you are interested in standing in a very specific area, a very specific ward or a very specific local board, you can go online and view what your pay would be if you were elected."
[New slide shows, titled ‘Additional benefits, with a bulleted list, detailing the benefits, resources and support available to all elected members.]
"So the pay is obviously one thing, but our elected members also do get other things they get provided with. A very important one is development opportunities. We do not expect people that get elected to know everything about the role and about council and about governance. So our elected members get provided with development opportunities throughout the three-year term."
"That can include effective governance training. So how decisions are made, the key obligations of elected members, how to oversee council's performance, those kind of things. There is leadership and strategic thinking training available. We also provide training on things like cultural competency and how to engage in and communicate with diverse audiences and communities."
"There's a lot of focus on our commitment to Te Tiriti and Māori outcomes and we also, of course, provide training and support around our council technology and digital platforms and all of our processes and systems and policies, which are things that our elected members obviously need to know as well."
"We obviously provide all the equipment for the job, so things like a laptop and a phone. But we also provide additional resources that can help manage personal or work-related challenges. So there's things like ergonomic assessments, flu vaccinations, also things like confidential resources and services to help manage challenges such as psychological support, for instance."
[New slide reads 'A week in the life of an elected member’ with a bulleted list of their key duties.]
"So a week in the life of an elected member would obviously vary quite a bit depending on if you're the mayor or if you're, you're a local board member in a very rural board or a very central city board, for instance. Obviously the pace, the priorities, the type of community you work with will be quite different."
"But all in all, there are some commonalities. In whatever elected member role you end up in. So a lot of time is spent reading and preparing and attending meetings and workshops. So that's really where the decisions are made. It's at those political meeting tables. It's all official. There's, you know, record keepings, all of that."
"All of that can be viewed online, as I mentioned earlier, so you can view the meetings and you can also read all the documents so you can get a bit of a sense of what that would look like. Obviously they spend a lot of time voting in those decision making meetings and committees. So I've touched on some of those things earlier, but as a local board member, some of those decisions would be local things like the grant applications, library hours, pool and leisure fees, park or playground upgrades and investment."
"Local transport infrastructure, like your road, your food path, your pedestrian crossings, and so forth as a councillor. Decisions would be at a more regional level. So we're talking the rates as part of the long-term plan or the annual budget, your bylaws, your budgets. It's that councillors also get involved in setting regional strategies and policies."
"But I've touched on that earlier. A lot of the time that our elected members spend is on engaging with the public. So it's really important as representatives of the public, that our elected members stay in touch with their local constituents. So that could be things like, obviously talking to your locals on social media or via email."
"It could be also visiting a local community facility. Could be meeting your community leaders or residents or business associations and so forth. Finally you're really a spokesperson of the council as elected members. So you could be called to represent a council at official community or cultural events or you could be speaking to the media on behalf of the council."
"So that could also involve things like attending local festivals or citizenship ceremonies, the opening of a new facility. Sometimes it could be being invited to speak at a local Christmas festival or an Anzac Day event. And as I mentioned, you could be invited to speak to the media on behalf of the council."
[New slide shows 'How to become a candidate' written in a blue bubble with a group of runners competing in Round the Bays in the background. Next slide shows 'Who can become a candidate' with a bulleted list summarising the main points.]
"Now getting into the detail of how to become a candidate. So the first question really is who can actually be a candidate? And what's really important to know there is that: there's no specific background or degree or level of experience that is required. All you need is to be at least 18 years old and a New Zealand citizen, and you need to be registered on the electoral role."
"So there's the same registration, the same enrolment that you need to be able to vote. You need to be registered on the role to be able to stand, and you need also to have two people from the area that you are standing for that are enrolled that nominate you. So the requirements are fairly low."
"You, as I mentioned, don't need any degree or any specific professional background. Actually, the more diversity, the better. We really believe that decisions are best made if we have a range of different perspectives around the table. So we really welcome people from any kind of walk of life, any kind of background or a different perspective to actually stand and be able to really represent the diversity of Auckland out there."
[A new slide with different coloured bubbles appears featuring the key dates of the election campaign.]
"In terms of key dates, the candidate nominations will open on the 4th of July and close at midday on the 1st of August. So that is the kind of one month period during which you put your nominations forward. Formally officially, you really become officially a candidate at that point in time. But you can start campaigning anytime."
"And you might have seen some people have already officially announced themselves in the media. For instance, they've announced themselves as standing for a position or another. They might have started putting some campaigning messages on their social media. They might have started attending meetings."
"So it is completely okay. You can start doing that too, if you're serious about standing. But the nomination period really is that one month period from the 4th of July to the 1st of August. Following the candidate nominations, we will get into the voting period, which opens on the 9th of September and closes at midday on the 11th of October."
"So voting closes at midday on the 11th of October. We can't accept late votes so that's absolutely finished at 12 o'clock. Following the close of voting, we will get into the results. The results will be available between the 11th and the 18th of October. I'll pause here to go into a little bit more detail on the results because we actually have three different stages of results, and as candidates it's really important to be aware of that so that you're not surprised when you know things unfold."
"Following the elections, so on the afternoon of election day, so that will be Saturday, 11th of October. In the afternoon we will release the progress results. The progress results include votes that are returned until the Friday night. So they do not include the votes that are returned that Saturday morning of election day, and they also do not include special votes."
"On the Sunday or the Monday following election day, we will get the preliminary results released. So those will include the votes received on the Saturday morning. They still do not include special votes. And the final results, that's the third stage will be the officially declared results, and that will be the last lot, which will come out by the 18th of October."
"And these will finally include the special votes. It takes a few days for special votes because there is a process that goes through the Electoral Commission to validate all the special votes. We receive a large volume of special votes. And so that takes a few days for the Electoral Commission to go through each of them and validate them individually."
"So again, it's really important to remember if you stand that the information you receive on the Saturday afternoon, that first lot of progress results. This is not final. And yes, things can change sometimes. All it takes is a few hundred votes difference by the time the preliminary and special votes come in."
"Someone that was elected on the Saturday afternoon is no longer elected the following Monday or the following week when the final results are declared. So very important, and we do reiterate that after nominations close, we communicate to all candidates and re-explain that again, but I just want to make sure that I explain this now that results will not be final on that Saturday afternoon when we release them after elections close."
[New slide appears with 'Ways to run as a candidate' at the top, followed by a few bullet points about running independently versus running as part of an affiliation.]
"Now we'll go through ways to run as a candidate, and there's really two main ways to do that. The first one is, as an independent, this means that you run on your own. You can still express your own political colour or ideas, but you are not running alongside a party or a group with an official name."
"That would be affiliated. So affiliated or as we call it, sometimes in local elections 'on a ticket'. That means that you are officially supported by or you are officially part of a political party or organisation or group. So usually those tickets are between like-minded individuals and that can be helpful because that means obviously there's more people that can be supporting each other's campaign, share name recognition, and share campaign costs as well."
"So as a candidate, if you want to do that option, you can either join an existing affiliation. What that means is that you need to contact them. Basically, the council does not facilitate that. So you just go and contact your local ticket, the local branch of a political party, and you ask them about what the process is there."
"There is usually a process whereby they officially select or endorse the candidates that they want on the voting papers to represent their party or their group. So that's really for you to take on and have that conversation. You can also create your own ticket with one or more candidates. You will need to have some form of letter that confirms that the ticket that you are part of that ticket. Dale can provide more information on this at the end."
[New slide titled 'Standing for multiple positions' appears with bullet points summarising the key information.]
"It is also an option to stand for multiple positions. So what that means is that you can decide to stand for mayor, for ward councillor and for local board. You can only stand for one ward position. So you can't decide to try and stand for the Albany and the North Shore Ward. You have to pick only one ward to choose to stand for, but you can stand for a ward and a local board and you can also stand for multiple local boards. If you decide to do that and you happen to be elected in several positions that you have decided to stand for. Firstly, you will have to stand your local board of preference if you stand for multiple local boards."
"So as part of your nomination, you would have to say which one you would choose to actually sit on if you get elected on both. And if you do get elected to both a ward position and a local board position, the highest position takes precedent."
"So you would be elected to the board and not to the local board. And what would happen then is that the next successful candidate would slide into that seat. There is a $200 deposit for each nomination. So if you do stand for five positions, you have to pay five times that $200 deposit."
[New slide 'Nomination process' appears with the following bullet points 'Electronic nominations will be available for the first time, paper nominations will still be available at 20+ locations across Auckland, forms (online and paper) will be available from 4 July 2025 nominations close on Friday 1 August 2025 at 12 noon, you need to be enrolled and your two electors need to be enrolled in the area you are standing for'.]
"Now in terms of the nominations process, so as I mentioned, the nomination will open on the 4th of July and close at midday on Friday, the 1st of August. The nominations document, so the papers, the electronic form, will not be available before that 4th of July date. We often get asked, can I just get the papers now?"
"No, they are not released until the opening of nominations. For the first time, we will have electronic nominations available, so there will be an online platform whereby you can fill in all of the details. Upload your photo then there's an automated email to get your nominators to nominate you, you know, confirm that they nominate you and so forth."
"This can all be done electronically for the first time. But paper nominations remain an option as in the previous years. So the paper nominations document will be available to download from our website or they can also be physically available from a number of our libraries. All the details will be available online on Vote Auckland."
"As I mentioned earlier, in terms of the criteria to become a candidate, you need to be a New Zealand citizen. You need to be at least 18 years old and you need to be enrolled on the New Zealand electoral roll, and your two nominators need to be enrolled in the area you are standing for. What that means is that if you are standing for a subdivision within a local board, your two nominators need to be enrolled for that specific subdivision."
"This is probably the thing that we get most mistakes on, most issues with when it comes to nominations. And you don't want your nominations to be declined because your nominators are not in the right area or they're not enrolled. So you can check those things. You can check the exact area by typing in an address on our local board finder."
"So that's a tool that's available on our Vote Auckland website. You type in an address and it will provide you with the information of what ward, what local board. And if there's a subdivision, what subdivision this address belongs to. So if you have people that are considering being your nominators for your nomination, you should check their address on that finder to make sure that their address is in the right ward or local board."
"You should also ask those nominators to check that they are enrolled with that address and that their enrolment details are up to date. They can do that online at Vote New Zealand. Another thing that's really worth spending a bit of time talking about is the contact details."
[New slide 'Nomination process' the bullet points say 'be contactable: ensure your contact details are correct. If you choose to keep your contact details private, we will not be able to share with media or any other interested parties. Your photo and profile statement will be key information for voters. Your statement needs to include relevant information about your policies.']
"When you fill in your nominations, you'll be asked to provide contact details and you'll be asked to decide if you want those contact details to be kept confidential or if you're happy for us to share them with the media or potentially make them public entirely. Often a candidate will choose to keep those details private."
"Because understandably, they don't want their email address or their phone number to be out and about visibly for all on the website. What that means, if you keep them completely private is that media organisations or other organisations that might be hosting meet the candidate events for instance, they won't be able to contact you because we will not be allowed to share your contact information."
"So when you fill in your nomination, really make sure that there is at least one form of contact that is available to be shared with the media or with those other organisations that could potentially help you with your campaign, because you do want to be invited to those opportunities to speak to your local paper and introduce yourself or to attend a local media candidate event where you can talk, you know, answer questions from your communities about your policy and such."
"You also want to pay attention to the photo and the profile statement that you can provide as part of your nomination. These are two things that are optional, so you can put a nomination forward without a photograph and without a profile statement, but these things are really important information for voters."
"So ask yourself when you fill in your nomination, ask yourself about how you can really put your best foot forward for voters to actually vote for you. So a photo, and it has to be a recent photo. It's a passport photo, but it has to be a recent one. And your profile statement are really important things."
"These are the things that will be part of that little booklet that is sent with your voting pack. So that's really the first thing that voters will kind of see about you. So we really encourage you to make sure you include relevant information in your candidate statement. It's only 150 words."
"It's fairly limited what you can put on there, but sort of try and focus on relevant information about your policies. Again, what would voters want to know about you to be able to make an informed choice? Once the nominations have closed and once you've submitted your nomination, we cannot make changes after the submission."
"So really check, check and recheck before you submit. And we cannot accept late nominations. So be sure to be ready to put your nomination forward early. Do not wait until the very last minute, because if there's any issues, you come in at 11:59 on the close of nomination day on the 1st of August, if there's any issue because your nominator is actually not enrolled at that address that you thought it was, and so they're not in the right area for to nominate you. You'll have to go back and find someone else, and that will take longer than a minute. And we cannot accept a partial nomination and let you go away and collect further information and come back."
"We have to accept the nomination all in one go to be submitted before the close. So we really encourage people to prepare themselves to put the nomination forward early and have some extra time if they need to. If there's anything that needs correcting."
[New slide shows 'Campaigning tips' written in a blue bubble with families and children flying kites in the background. The nest slide appears titled 'Cost of campaigning' with a summary of the main points in a bulleted list.]
"Now getting to the campaigning tips. A thing we often get asked about is the cost of campaigning and if there's any funding available. So first, no campaign costs can be funded by Auckland Council. All campaign costs are to be paid by the candidate or the candidates can also seek private donations. The law limits how much a candidate can spend on their campaign. That's to do with the population of the area they are standing for."
"So the maximum limit that a local board candidate can spend will be lower than the limit of a ward councillor and will be lower than the limit for the mayor. I think at this stage the mayor must be close to a million dollars of maximum limit for their campaign. All of that detail, again, is available online."
"So if you've got a specific area that you're considering standing for, you can go and have a look and see what the maximum expense would be that you can spend on your campaign. But again, that is the maximum. Allowed amount. It is not how much you actually have to spend. Some candidates spend close to nothing to campaign and they are successful."
"It's not to say that you have to spend lots of money to actually get elected. We have had some successful candidates that have run a very thrifty campaign. Other candidates do spend several thousand dollars. Also very important to note that candidates are legally required to declare their donations and campaign expenses."
"So after the election, even if you are not elected, but just because you have been a candidate, you will have to fill in a donation and expense form that you will have to return to Dale, our Electoral Officer by December, 2025. Again, all of that information is available online and Dale is on this call to answer any questions if needed."
"Typical campaign expenses may include things like hoardings and election signage, posters, leaflets, ads in the media, and so forth."
[New slide appears with 'Campaigning tips' as a heading and the main points summarised in bullets.]
"So in terms of campaigning tips, what we can recommend is that you make a plan and set yourself a budget and you try to stick to it. It's really important to have a support network. It can be quite hard to put yourself out there on a public platform. You want to make sure you have a support network, potentially find a mentor, someone that has gone through this before and can kind of guide you through this process."
"Many of our current or past elected members are very happy to share their experience. So again, if you've got maybe a local if elected members that you know you've met or you'd like to maybe get in touch with, you can contact them directly. All of their contact details are available online so you can just reach them."
"Reach out to them and explain that you'd like to stand and see if they've got any tips for you, maybe would like to meet and give you a few bits of advice. Another really important thing is to be an informed candidate. What that means is be clear about what your mandate would be."
"You know, if you're standing for a local board, you want to talk about things that are relevant to that local board- local issues that are issues that matter to that local community as part of your campaign. What you also want to make sure that you share accurate information as part of your campaign."
"Often we have candidates come up with negative comments about, for instance, the council or past decisions, and it's actually misinformation. It's actually not accurate, so you want to make sure that you check past council meetings and documents. You can also read all of our council plans, you know, the budget decisions that have been made, so you have the actual facts and use that as part of your campaign."
"You definitely want also, as part of being an informed candidate, to talk to your local community because they're your potential future voters. So you need to know what matters to them and make sure that you've got a clear idea about what your answer is to those things that matter to them. Another thing that's really important is that you tell voters about yourself."
"I mentioned a photo and a candidate statement that is part of your nomination. We will also have a candidate profile available on our Vote Auckland website, so that will be more than 150 words to tell voters about yourself. You'll have an opportunity to talk about your priorities if you're elected to talk about your views and your positions on a number of key issues for Auckland."
"We will also have a series of meet the candidate events. So that is where all candidates from a specific area will get to attend a meeting together and answer questions and meet the local community and answer questions from them as well. So that's a really good way for voters to get a gauge of what the candidates, um, what their priorities are, what kind of people they are."
"So you really wanna make the most of those opportunities to reach your voters. Lastly, really important as well, is to maintain good standards of behaviour. You want to be someone that voters can actually respect and want to vote for and it's also important to know that in some cases there can be consequences for bad behaviour."
[New slide appears with 'Keeping your campaign costs low’ as a heading and the main points summarised in bullets.]
"Now a few tips to keep your campaign costs low. I've mentioned we've had successful candidates in the past actually run a fairly cheap campaign. There are great ways to do that nowadays. So one would be, for instance, leveraging social media. So using free platforms like Facebook and Instagram or TikTok to share your messages with your community."
"There's plenty of tips online for how to create engaging posts and videos and likes to connect with your voters. Sorry, the light just went out in my room. You can also participate in local online groups so that you can, you know discuss with your local community and the like, or promote your campaign on your local social pages."
"You can also engage with your community directly the old-fashioned way, going door to door, you know, attending your local markets or any local events so that you can be visible to your community and your potential voters. You also want to potentially use word of mouth and recruit a few supporters that can talk about you and your campaign to their networks."
"You can find ways to create low-cost materials. There's a bunch of free or very cheap platforms available online nowadays that help you create, you know, flyers, posters, handouts, and the like. As I mentioned, you can recruit some supporters so you could have some volunteers help you with calling people spreading your message online, organising events so that you can meet potential voters."
"We have three public spaces, obviously in Auckland that you can use. So you might want to inquire in your area what spaces you might be able to use to organise a public meeting, to meet your potential voters. There's also your local community noticeboards and the like."
"Something that is also worth keeping in mind is that you could try and reach out to your local media and encourage them to talk about you. We know that the media usually tries to talk about local elections. The candidate at the mayoral level often get more airtime and more visibility, but we as a council are working with media at the moment to really encourage them to run stories as well about local candidates. So it's worth considering reaching out to your local newspapers or local radio stations to see if they'd be interested in doing a profile or things like that. You know, offer to participate in interviews, anything really to highlight your platform."
"Really we encourage you to be very authentic, as part of your campaign. Focus on the issues that matter to you and your community and show how you are committed to walking the talk really."
"Now I'm reaching the end of this presentation and we'll be able to get to your questions shortly. Nominations are only a couple of months away now. As I said, they're opening on the 4th of July. Standing as a candidate is obviously a big commitment and people who get elected, it will be a big job and a big commitment as well to sit at that decision-making table."
[New slide appears with ‘Too short notice?’ as a heading and the main points summarised in bullets.]
"So it could seem, after hearing all of this information, it could seem like it's too much to commit to at such short notice, you know? And so if that's the case. Hopefully this information won't be lost because you could start considering what you could do now to be ready to stand, you know, in the next election three years from now."
"There's plenty of ways that you could start chipping away at it to get more visibility, to get more experience and be successful in a future election. So some of those things could include supporting another local candidate and being part of their support campaign so that you get a bit of campaign experience under your belt."
"You could get in touch with your local ticket and party now and not necessarily join them as a candidate for this election, but just be part of the kind of base and be involved in their activities. You know, get some contacts, get your network going so that you'd be ready three years from now. Now would also be a great time to get involved in your local community, you know, start being visible."
"So that could be volunteering, for instance, with a local organisation. And, you could also use this stand to be well-prepared for what your future job could be like. So that would be learning about council. Start participating in your local governance, like attending your local board meetings, for instance."
"So you are really au fait with the decisions that get made, the kind of conversations that are happening in that space. But if you do decide to go this time around and you do get elected, it's really important to know that. Work will start right away. Often candidates feel like they've earned a break."
[New slide appears with the heading 'If elected' detailing all the tasks that need to be completed by elected members within the first few months.]
"The election was the finish line. Poof. They've made it through. They can now pause and go on holiday. We really do not recommend that because immediately following the election, onboarding and inauguration start taking place so our elected members will get busy from get-go from the very first days."
"And we need that commitment to the onboarding process in the first few months to learn about the council systems to start meeting all the other elected members that you need to be working with. You'll be a team with them, right? So you need to start to get to know them."
"You also need to meet your supporting staff at the council. You need to attend your inauguration. You cannot actually perform the role of elected member unless you are inaugurated. So that's really an event you do not wanna miss. I mentioned earlier that there's a lot of development opportunities and training that we do provide our elected members."
"Obviously the first few months after election when there's a lot to learn and a lot to get your head around, it's really important to be available. So we do not recommend booking a holiday for the 12th of October. Basically."
"We do send all of those dates, inaugurations and key dates in the onboarding process. We send that well in advance to candidates so that before the election takes place, you kind of already know what dates you need to pencil in your calendar. Should you be elected. "
[New slide with 'Want to know more' written in a red bubble on the left-hand side and contact information on the right: "Visit voteauckland.govt.nz/beacandidate, get in touch at elections@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz and contact the Electoral Office at 09 973 5212 or info@electionservices.co.nz]
"Now just a few pointers on where to find more information. So I've mentioned our Vote Auckland website a few times."
"That is www.voteauckland.co.nz. We have a section there. www.voteauckland.co.nz/beacandidate that has got everything for people who want to stand. So a lot of the information I've shared tonight is available on there and a lot more. From later this week, we will also have the candidate handbook available online on the website, and from next week we'll have paper copies available at some of our libraries and also through Dale's office."
"You can get in touch with our team at elections@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or you can also get in touch with Dale and his team at the electoral office. Their address is info@electionservices.co.nz. And finally, starting from this Friday, we will be running a series of info sessions in a number of our libraries across the region."
"The schedule is available online at voteauckland.co.nz/infosessions. So if you've got more questions after tonight, maybe you'll go away and think about it a bit more and more questions will come up. Those info sessions in libraries are an opportunity to go and speak to one of our staff members, they are staff members who support our local board currently."
"So they have that real knowledge of what it's like to be an elected member and what some of those key local issues are. So this is really an opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with someone who has experience of that world and can give you a little bit more intel about what it would be like to be elected or things to consider, if you decide to, to stand for that area."
[A new slide with a white question mark inside a red circle appears on screen. The screen changes to show a close up of Elodie on the left and Rhiannon on the right.]
"And it's now time for your questions. So I'll ask Rhiannon to go through the questions that have been popped in the Q and A so we can get to answering them. And it's not too late. You can still post more questions now if you have more questions."
Rhiannon: "I think Elodie at the moment we don't have any questions in the Q and A, but as Dale said, please feel free to pop some questions and we'll give you some time to type them up."
"Look at that okey-doke. So we've got a question from Esme. As part-time council members, are we allowed to hold another job outside of our council duties?"
Elodie: "Yes you can. Obviously you do need to make sure that you will still be able to commit to the time, as in your role as as elected members. So, different local boards hold meetings at different times of the day or of the month. So it's worth keeping in mind if, you know, if your job would be an inflexible nine to five, Monday to Friday."
"Would you be able to do that while doing your role on, on the local board? But we do have a number of members that have a job on the side. Yes."
Rhiannon: "Okay, we've got a question from George. Auckland is the most diverse city in New Zealand with one in every three residents being of Asian descent. So why is there not a single Asian representative in its Governing Body, which consists of the mayor and 20 councillors. Other cities have Asian councillors. Could Auckland's unique electoral system be part of the reason?"
Elodie: "I don't think I've got an answer on that. All I can say is that we definitely take to heart that our elected members genuinely represent the diversity of our city. So we do a lot of work to try and encourage people from diverse backgrounds to stand."
"We obviously cannot directly control who actually stands and certainly not control who actually gets elected. So, I hope that answers your question."
Rhiannon: "We'll continue to give everybody another couple of minutes, here you go. It's like clockwork when we do it like this. From Amelia, are there any restrictions on the type of second job you can hold, for instance, that are considered a conflict of interest?"
Elodie: "I will have to seek advice from some of my colleagues on this and get back to you, Amelia separately."
"So what, what we'll do is after this meeting closes, tomorrow I will send an email with a few links just so that you all can explore a bit more information in your own time, and I will include answers to any questions I cannot answer tonight. So this might be one of them. I'm not aware of any restrictions on the types of job that our members can hold."
"I do know that it happens sometimes that members that have got interest or activities on the outside, there are conflicts of interest with decisions they do need to make as part of their role. If that's the case, what we do require is that they do declare that interest. So if you are married to someone who manages a community organisation and this organisation is seeking a local ground, for instance, to keep functioning. It would be obvious that you might not be super neutral when making that decision on that ground. So we would want you to declare that interest by explaining your relations with that organisation and you would have to stand back from actually voting in that decision."
"That's all I can say on that, but I will seek further detail and I will share that in that follow up email I'll send tomorrow."
Rhiannon: "From Thomas, how many candidates stood in the last election?"
Elodie: In 2022 we had 466 candidates stand in total. I do have the breakdown somewhere of, you know, how many for mayor, how many for different local boards and so forth. I don't have that right now. So again, that's information I can share in the email. If you'd like the detail."
Rhiannon: "And from Selena, is there a chance to book in a face-to-face meeting to ask more questions?
Elodie: "So I'd recommend you check out the schedule of those drop-in sessions that we are holding in libraries 'cause hopefully there'll be a time there that is suitable for you. If none of these are suitable, you can contact us on elections@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz and we can see how we can help answer any additional questions."
Rhiannon: "Okay. From Catherine Graham, lately we've been hearing a lot about online and other abuse that councillors, particularly women receive in public office. What support does the council slash boards provide if this happens?"
Elodie: Yes, we are well aware of that and there is a piece of work in progress at the moment around elected members' wellbeing."
"So I've mentioned we have some support available for our elected members. We have staff that support them and we have some external tools available as well for additional support. But we are aware that there is probably more we could do in that space. So this is an evolving area. We are working on that, on that piece at the moment."
Rhiannon: Excuse my pronunciation from Alkaid. Just curious, from your experience, what is a common age range of local board members?"
Elodie: Oh, I do not have that information. Again, we probably have got that information from past elections, so I could dig that out and share that in the follow up email."
Rhiannon: "Okay. And then we've got one from Anne, I'm reluctant to dive back into social media, but I'm getting the sense that this is something that's essential."
Elodie: I mean, you just have to ask yourself where your voters could be. You know how, obviously if you want to stand in an election and you're hoping to be successful, you need to reach the people who will be voting."
"So it's about where would those people be? And at the moment, a lot of people do use social media, so it could indeed be a very good channel to use, but there are also a lot of other places to go and meet people and make yourself known. So that's all I can say really. I do not have further advice on that."
Rhiannon: "Okay. And that's the last question that we have at the moment. Again, we'll give you a couple of minutes if anyone's got anything extra to ask or to add."
Elodie: "Thank you all for joining us tonight. If any last minute question comes through, we'll answer it, but I just want to thank you all for your time. I hope you found this session helpful. I'll, as I mentioned, send a follow up email tomorrow with a bit more detail on some of the questions I couldn't fully answer tonight."
"I'll also include some links to further information that you can find online. The recording of this session will be made available on our website in the next few days, so you'll be able to go back to it and watch it again if you need to. We are also available, as I said at elections@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz if you want to ask any further questions."
"And we have of course, those info sessions in libraries starting from this Friday."
Rhiannon: "Just before we wrap up, we've got a couple of just final questions. If you are happy to take those Elodie."
Elodie: "Yes, sure."
Rhiannon: "So from Tennessee, what is being done to make sure candidates without large financial backing still have a fair chance to reach voters, especially with the rise of social media advertising."
Elodie: "Thank you. As I mentioned in the the campaigning tips, there's a lot of ways to, campaign at fairly low cost and a lot of opportunities on social media are free. There are also all the offline good old-fashioned ways of going out and meeting your communities that could be helpful to a low-cost campaign."
Rhiannon: "And then the last question that we have here, I think this is in relation to local board subdivisions. How do elections work in the local area? Let's say someone wants to stand in Ōrākei board and there are many smaller areas or subdivisions. Do candidates just stand for a particular area and only the people from that area vote for him or her?"
Elodie: "Yeah, that's correct. So in the case of a local board with subdivisions, indeed the candidate chooses the specific subdivision they want to stand for. They need to find two nominators that live and are enrolled for an address in that specific subdivision. And only voters in that specific subdivision will be able to vote for that candidate."
"We see a couple of hands that have been raised. The mics are disabled in this session, so you won't be able to ask your question orally. So if you want to pop in the Q and A section or follow up in an email to us later on."
"Right. I think there's no more questions that have come through, so I'll close tonight's session. As I mentioned, I hope that's been helpful. You can always get in touch with us if you have more questions and I'll be in touch tomorrow with some follow up for you to have more information. Thank you all. Have a good night, ka kite."
[Video ends]
Back to Recordings of candidate information sessions and slideshows.