His main competition is likely to come
from Jason Smith, a former mayor who resigned in 2022 to pursue a career
in central government politics. He was unsuccessful, so he has opted to step-back
into the mayoral role.
The other contenders are councillor Ash Nayyar, and Snow Tane, a prominent iwi leader.
Their positions on key issues couldn’t
be more contrasting.
Larsen supported the council’s
decision to withdraw its membership of Local Government NZ (LGNZ) and remove
racial preference. Smith wants to rejoin LGNZ and would reintroduce tikanga and
karakia as part of the Council’s procedures.
Larsen is standing on a future-looking
platform of “Stability – Unity - Leadership”. In a bid to unite the district, he
has committed upfront to appoint popular Wairoa ward Councillor Gordon Lambeth
as the Deputy Mayor if elected. In
contrast Smith is campaigning on a return to the past, “Better Kaipara Again”.
That line has not been going down with the public. Some have recalled that he
not only refused to consult the public before introducing the Maori ward, but he
refused to have any regard for the thousands of voters who signed a paper
petition, validated by the Electoral Officer, calling on the council to hold a
binding referendum. Many will not forget his arrogant disregard for public
opinion.
Ash Nayyar is running a policy
platform of cutting wasteful spending and freezing rates, and ensuring
Dargaville gets its fair share of spending.
The challenge he has is matching his campaign rhetoric to reality. A
Taxpayers Union comparison of council rate increases shows (over the last three
years) the KDC has had one of the lowest rates increases in the country. It has
achieved that by eliminating wasteful and low-priority spending.
Claims that Dargaville has been neglected and is not getting its “fair share” of council spending are also not supported by fact. Council documents show the Dargaville Wairoa area receives $2.5m more in council expenditure than it pays in rates. A stronger argument could be made by the residents in Kaiwaka-Mangawhai that Wairoa is getting more than its “fair” share!
We also find it perplexing that Ash
would claim to advocate for more spending in Dargaville when the voting record
show he (and Crs Paniora who is also standing in the Wairoa ward) voted against
spending $550,000 on the Dargaville urban roading and footpath revitalisation
project promoted by Larsen and Lambeth. (KDC
minutes, 27 November 2024.)
Snow Tane is running on a campaign to
“restore trust and integrity”. He, and others, have claimed water outages in
Dargaville were due to ageing and underfunded infrastructure. However, a report in the 2 September issue of Kaipara
Lifestyler reported the major water outage in May water fault was due to
human error by a maintenance crew, not disrepair.
Like Smith, Snow Tane supports Maori
wards and would reintroduce Tikanga to council practices. He is being endorsed
by Penny Smart who in 2022 lost her seat on the Northland Regional Council to
John Blackwell.