Voting for the local councils finished this weekend. Voting is by post and lasts for a 3 week period. We did not know we could have registered to vote until we received voter registration forms last Friday. I thought we would have had to have citizenship to vote here. Funnily we also received our registration forms for overseas voting in Northern Ireland on Friday… so we will have votes in the elections of 2 countries on opposite sides of the world!
Voter turnout is about 40%... so poor interest in local elections. Voters get to choose councillors, mayors and district health board (DHB) representatives. The mayor sits for the term of the council and cannot be removed by the councillors.
There are 21 DHB’s in New Zealand – that averages one for each 200,000 people. Each DHB looks after all health care and is funded centrally by the Ministry of Health. Because of the sparse population outside of the main centres some DHB’s cover huge geographic areas. There are arguments here just like in Northern Ireland about hospitals closing, lack of doctors,nurses & specialists and the waste on administration. I expect the number of DHB’s will be reduced in the near future.
The new mayor of Auckland has said immediately that he is not going to spend council money on the extension of Eden Park for the Rugby World Cup in 4 years opening up the possibility of the final being played in Wellington or Christchurch. Mayors have more power here!
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