Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he is "very open" to having the Electoral Commission run local government elections in future.
Luxon was speaking to reporters at the weekly post-Cabinet media briefing, following the latest local elections over the weekend.
Local elections in New Zealand are run by the councils themselves, with each appointing an electoral officer.
The Commission's role in the local elections is currently limited to ensuring each council has up-to-date electoral information in time for the elections, with no other management or oversight role.
While turnout on the Saturday was just over 32 percent, that increased to just over 38 percent on provisional turnout numbers released by LGNZ on Monday - still down from the 42 percent turnout in 2022.
Interim chief executive Scott Necklen said they had been calling for changes for years, and it needed to be done urgently.
President Sam Broughton - who lost the mayoral race for Selwyn over the weekend - told Morning Report part of the reason for low turnout was voters using the post in the digital age, and the Commission running a standardised process across the country would help.
It was an idea Luxon backed.
"I'm very open to that. In fact, the ministers and also Local Government New Zealand - those are conversations that have already started, and I think we do need to look at the actual mechanism by which we run the elections, and the involvement of the Electoral Commission and other things.
"So, Minister [Paul] Goldsmith with Minister [Simon] Watts and LGNZ leadership, I was even party to those conversations before the election as well."
Luxon said councils needed candidates that had a compelling vision about what they wanted to do, and New Zealanders needed to register and vote.
"We see a number of councils across the country where we've seen, I think, on average a 12.7 percent rate rise - if you care deeply about what's happening with your rates and the spending that's going on in your council and what's happening in your local community, you get out and vote."
He spoke of having visited the joint training of Ukrainian soldiers in the United Kingdom with Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
"We saw that graduating class of 160 Ukrainians, and they're fighting for democracy - and so it's not something you take lightly. It's a real privilege and it's a real right, but it's also a responsibility."
He refused to single out any candidates that had not said voters "get what you deserve".
"And if you're not prepared to either back candidates or if you think you're going to be a good candidate yourself, step into the arena and actually put your name forward and actually advocate strongly for your community, we want as many good candidates coming into the political system both in central and local government as possible from as broad and diverse backgrounds as possible."
He also welcomed the results of the votes on Māori wards around the country.
"From our point of view it was just simply a matter of: fantastic for those areas that have wanted to positively affirm that they want to keep their Māori wards; fantastic for those that are just like, they don't want to.
"Our whole thing was it shouldn't be mandated from Wellington. It should be a decision that's made by local communities, and that's what's happened."
He gave no hints as to where the government might land on rates capping, saying those discussions were yet to take place.
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