Housing, roading and what councils will look like in the future are the top issues facing the Western Bay of Plenty, according to the mayoral hopefuls.

The question was posed at the Western Bay of Plenty District Council's mayoralty debate last night.

The evening was held at the University of Waikato's Tauranga campus and hosted by SKY Sport broadcaster Kirstie Stanway.

She quizzed the eight candidates on the top three issues facing the Western Bay, partnership with Māori, leadership style and how to ensure all voices in the district were heard.

The candidates in the spotlight were current councillors James Denyer, Don Thwaites, John Scrimgeour and newcomers Suaree Borell, Mark Boyle, Paul Haimona, Rodney Joyce and Hori BOP Leaming.

To start the night, outgoing mayor Garry Weber addressed the candidates.

Webber said he and the previous mayor Ross Patterson had 'put Western bay in a strong place” and he hoped whoever took over would 'continue that performance of taking us forward”.

'The process you're going through now is politics, getting yourself elected, but the process you will walk into is governance.

'It is about governing a team of some would say, disparate individuals to try and get them heading roughly in the same direction. And rest assured democracy is not a skill test.”

Candidates were then given one minute to introduce themselves before Stanway posed the first question.

'What do you see as the top three issues facing the Western Bay of Plenty district right now, and how do you propose we fix those?”

Each person was given 90 seconds to answer each question and had the chance to be the first one to answer throughout the course of the debate.

Boyle answered the Western Bay was an 'aspirational place to live” with 'very strong economic drivers”.

'We have a requirement to focus on infrastructure delivery and good planning to enable housing, not only in our urban centres, but also in our rural areas.

He said the Three Waters reform was another issue that was 'very emotive' and had been 'terribly communicated”.

'What it highlights is that the government seems intent on taking away the local from local government.

'So, whilst we've been very successful, one can only see a future where they want to take the water, then comes the roads and ultimately council will end up being a handmaiden to central government.”

Three Waters reform will see management of drinking, waste and stormwater changed from New Zealand's city and district council's to four public entities.

Denyer said the top three issues were housing, transport, and government reform.

'There's obviously a housing shortage and affordability problems there.”

He said council was moving to fix those by developing elder housing and there were 'exciting plans” for housing in the east of the district.

'I'm a passionate supporter of the Katikati bypass. I was able to advocate for the TNL [Takitimu North Link] stage two.

'Government reform it's not just Three Waters … it's RMA [resource management act] reform and it's the Future for Local Government review.

'Some of them, like RMA, have the potential to be more impactful on council's business than Three Waters reform.”

Haimona said his issue was 'slavery” in the Kiwifruit industry where there were recognised seasonal employees who were living in buildings with 10 other people in bunks.

'It's not comfortable at their home, so it's slavery I'm going to impact.

'And what I'm going to do is I'm going to take those people that are doing that to workers ... I'm going to take them to court.”

He said the second was homelessness and he suggested having a building in Te Puke for the homeless 'so the cops can take these homeless people, feed 'em, bath them and put 'em back out on the streets again”.

'The last thing is security. We all want to walk safe on our streets. You have wardens.”

Joyce listed the top three issues as rates, Three Waters and open governance and humility.

'We need to balance rates and investment, there's no doubt about that. We can't stop investing, but we need a better balance.

Joyce said his stance on Three Waters was 'very well-known”. 'We're still going to face big water bills. We'll just pay it to somebody else.

'The risk there is that the council will try and keep rates where they are or not give back those savings properly.

'The third thing is I'd like to see a bit more open governance and humility in the way the council deals with its public.”

Leaming's top three were housing and roading, communication within the community and building an events stadium in the Western Bay.

'One of the most important roads to deal with at the moment is State Highway 29, to get traffic through to the Port [of Tauranga].”

He also listed the Katikati Bypass, stage two of the TNL from Ōmokoroa to Te Puna and a bypass for Te Puke as other roads that were needed.

'We've got quite a large geographical area to try and deal with and I think there needs to be a little bit more communication and unity within the [region].

'The third thing I'd like to do is bring an events stadium to the Western Bay of Plenty,” concluded Leaming.

Scrimgeour said the biggest issues were housing roading and jobs.

'We have huge issues in terms of people sleeping on the streets, living in sub-standard accommodation, in their cars and all those things.

'We need a significant increase in housing supply to accommodate those needs and all the people who want to come to this wonderful part of the world. And it's highlighted too in our roading shortcomings.”

He said: 'It's awesome to see work going on at the Baypark to Bayfair [overpass], and we'd love to see that actually completed, and you are able to drive through the instead of crawling through.”

He also said the region had undergone 'really rapid growth”, it was 1.5 per cent of New Zealand's population in the 1950s and it was now 4 per cent.

Thwaite's issues were 'external influences”, transport and housing.

He said the external influences involved the Future for Local Government Review, Three Waters Reform and RMA reform.

'I propose to elevate housing to a full committee of council.

'We've got to work alongside central government, social housing providers, developer and our own district plan review to free up and make housing affordable and happen.

'Transport, absolute passion of mine. But realistically this government collects $100 billion dollars a year in tax and GST, NZTA has budget of $4 billion a year.

'There is a huge amount of competition for $4 billion, so some solutions have to be found.”

Borrell rounded out this question with her issues of housing and roading and the Future for Local Government review.

'I take a view that, that [review] will involve a constitutional lens and that I will be well placed to guide this council on how we might undertake that.

'There will be some serious changes from that review, and they will impact the everyday business of the council,” she said.

'My everyday job involves determining the value and the merit of actions from people who are spending our money and I would like to apply that expertise into these places.”

In terms of diversity, candidates were asked what they would do in their role as mayor to ensure council was catering to the diverse needs of the community.

Haimona, who is Māori and of Ngati Whakaue Ngäti Makino and Ngati Pikiao descent, said the answer was to be inclusive.

'Don't ostracise people include them in the community,” he said.

Borrel said: 'Diversity is about understanding the complimentary ways rather than the contradictory ways that people work together” and she would bring diversity to council 'just by her existence”.

'I am female. I am Maori. I am currently in a relationship with a woman of 15 years. I am everything that other candidates are not.”

She is the only woman standing for the mayoralty position.

The other candidates spoke of listening to the whole community and meeting them where they are.

Leaming said: 'You have to take the people with you, otherwise you've lost from the get-go”.

Joyce said: 'Humility comes to mind, talk with people, listen to people”.

Finishing the evening was a round of quickfire questions where the hopefuls had to answer yes or no. Each candidate was given different questions from the set.

The debate was livestreamed and is still available on the councils' Generation change website.

Quickfire round: How the candidates answered.

Is regional collaboration important to manage the district's growth?

Yes: Denyer, Thwaites, Leaming, Borell, Haimona.

No:

We need to improve our current housing before promoting more population growth

Yes: Denyer, Thwaites, Leaming, Borell, Haimona.

Climate emergency?

Yes: Denyer.

No: Thwaites, Boyle, Joyce.

Transfer stations in our district?

Yes: Denyer, Leaming, Borell, Scrimgeour, Joyce.

Cultural diversity makes it harder to ensure all residents' needs are being met.

Yes: Denyer, Haimona, Scrimgeour.

No: Borell.

Is freedom of speech and danger in Aotearoa New Zealand?

Yes:

No: Thwaites, Haimona, Boyle, Scrimgeour, Joyce.

Should there be specific Māori representation on council?

Yes: Thwaites, Leaming, Haimona, Joyce.

No: Boyle.

The local voice is best represented through community boards.

Yes: Leaming, Boyle, Scrimgeour.

No:

Should the Western Bay remain in Local government New Zealand?

Yes: Borell, Boyle, Scrimgeour, Joyce.

No:

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.