Youth say councils need to do more to reach young voters

Some people in one of the youngest cities in New Zealand say councils need to do more to reach young voters.

Thirty-five percent of Porirua's population is aged under 24 - making it the third youngest city in New Zealand after Hamilton and Dunedin.

RNZ asked some young people in the city if they knew who their mayoral or council candidates were, or if they were talking about the elections.

Ruby Sei, 24, said she only knew about the council, the elections and candidates due to her current job.

"Some of my friends, we were talking about it recently, they didn't even know who the current mayor was."

Andrew Mokalei-Leiataua, 17, agreed.

"It's not like everyday you meet a young person like yourself and the first thing you bring up is 'oh have you seen the election yet?' - no one ever says that."

Oriwia Kingi, 18, said she hears about the council through her family, but not through her peer group.

"It's definitely talked about more with me and my older siblings, but when it comes to me and my friend groups, I don't think we've ever talked about it to be honest."

Voter turnout at local body elections hit a low of 41 percent in 2022, and no agency had the complete national data on what the youth turnout was.

Voting based off a billboard 'not going to work'

Sei said information about candidates or council policies was not reaching the platforms where young people got their news, such as TikTok and Instagram.

"If you ask a young person who to vote for based off of seeing a billboard, it's not going to work.

"Young people like to know people, they like to know who they are and what they stand for, and seeing a billboard is just a face - so there's a lack of connection there I think."

Sei said the council needed to focus on reaching young people, explaining what it did and who the local leaders were.

Kingi said she would support a Youth Council being set up in the city, to act as a bridge between the council and young people in the community.

A Youth Advisory Group was dissolved in the mid-2010s. Porirua City Council said recommendations for a Youth Council to be set up would be considered after the elections on 11 October.

"Then at least we have people that are there just to talk about our opinions as young people, 'coz a lot of young people share the same opinions, especially with the way social media gets information out, and the way the young people feel about that information, and all of those things.

"I think it would be a big benefit for the young people to be heard for their voices to be heard on council."

Paris Oliver, 23, said diversity was important in council politics.

"Youth is diverse ... everyone has different levels of neurotypical, neurodiverse, or cultural, religion, because they all play a part in how we see the world."

What do young people want to see from their council and local politicians?

RNZ asked young people want they wanted to their council to focus on. Answers ranged from addressing homelessness, fixing roads, cleaning up the streets, and setting up more places for young people to spend time.

Liana Hull said public transport needed to improve drastically.

The 19-year-old, who worked and studied part-time, said she catches two buses and a train to get to university each day but the journey was far from straightforward.

"Public transport it sucks, it really does suck. The delays, it'll get cancelled last second, and bus drivers will drive past me all the time."

She said the costs amounted to about $15 a day - with a tertiary concession.

"Buses and trains will just get cancelled, and they say it will arrive in half and hour, but if I have a test in the morning I'm screwed."

Twenty-three-year-old Paris Oliver said she wanted to see parking costs decrease. "I would definitely say bring back the free parking."

And 17-year-olds Andrew Mokalei-Leiataua and Ezekiel Fuimaono wanted to see rubbish and vandalism adressed.

"On my way here, I think before I crossed under the highway, there was a burnt out car just lying on the grass, it seemed like it had been there for a couple of days."

What does the council say it's doing for young people around the elections?

Porirua City Council's head of democratic services Jack Marshall said the council was trying to reach young people where they were, including attending events around the city, and using social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

"We were lucky enough to have mahi rangatahi (work experience) students join us at council last term, who were able to provide valuable insights into what they connect with on social media, and we worked together to create educational content around local elections targeted to their peers."

He said a lot of the images around voting would include images of young people, and special voting would be available at libraries - focused around hours young people could attend - and on two Saturdays at North City Shopping Centre.

Marshall said he encouraged young people to enrol to vote, and to find out more about their candidates - and said a lot of this information was on the website.

Systemic issues

Local Government New Zealand said turnout at local elections was strongly correlated to age, and the older people got, the more likely they were to vote.

But it said recent voter surveys indicated more young people were taking part, and that not as many older people were taking part anymore.

A spokesperson said the number of elected members aged under 40 had doubled since 2016.

Otago University Professor Janine Hayward said that was a promising sign, but barriers still existed.

She said a first-past-the-post voting system was used by some councils, and that did not tend to lead to representative councils, compared to the Single Transferrable Vote STV voting system used by councils like Porirua and Dunedin.

She said the council system was skewed towards ratepayers and that left a lot of people out.

"There's even still the idea, that if you're not a property owner you can't vote in local government elections. It seems so foreign for young people to think about voting in their local government elections that a lot of them don't feel they're entitled to.

"That clearly has to change.

"Because local government is making decision that is vitally important for young people, and young people know that when they talk about the issues that matter to them - about infrastructure, about public transport, about access to water, about climate change, all of those things are so important in local government."

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