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Local Democracy Reporting
Local Democracy Reporting headlines with summaries.
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Nail-biting win for Māori seats at Horizons Regional Council
19 Oct 2025Horizons Regional Council will keep its two Māori constituencies after special votes pushed a paper-thin margin to a comfortable majority.
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Mayor keen to put heated campaign behind him
18 Oct 2025Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon has gone straight back to work this week, after winning a third term.
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A zero rate rise - what would it look like?
16 Oct 2025One council chief executive said he could deliver a zero rate rise, but you might not like it.
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Committee halts new liquor store after more than 700 objections
16 Oct 2025Business owners described issues with public drunkenness, urination, nudity, and brawls.
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Fears benefit changes will impact youth job programme
16 Oct 2025Two Canterbury mayors worry that changes to youth benefit rules will impact their rural employment scheme.
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Whanganui elects first Māori ward councillors as voters signal support for seats
15 Oct 2025Whanganui's first Māori ward councillors say their election marks both a milestone for local democracy and a call to strengthen Māori participation in local government.
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What’s next for Masterton town hall site?
15 Oct 2025It will take seven months to demolish Masterton's earthquake-prone town hall.
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Whakatāne votes for Nandor Tanczos's ‘nice-to-have' approach
14 Oct 2025The mayor-elect and former Green Party MP says projects that are 'nice to have' are not what drives rates rises.
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What's planned for the fastest growing district?
15 Oct 2025The district's new mayor is promising the next rate rise will be a single digit.
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New Ashburton mayor ready to 'walk the walk'
14 Oct 2025Liz McMillan was grinning from ear to ear as she settled into the Ashburton mayoral office in the town's library and civic centre.
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Increased vote count strengthens Pacific representation in South Auckland
14 Oct 2025Thousands more votes have been counted in the Auckland local elections, affecting the outcomes of several closely contested races.
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Hurunui mayor had already won, but that didn't stop nerves
12 Oct 2025Marie Black is ready to get to back work, after seeing the make-up of her new council.
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'Doesn't feel like election day': South Aucklanders cast final votes amid low turnout
11 Oct 2025At Manukau Library, students, parents and grandparents lined up together to vote on Saturday morning before the cutoff.
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Māori wards and candidates voted out across Taranaki
12 Oct 2025The results are preliminary, as they do not include votes made after Thursday or special votes, but numbers in the government-mandated referendums are not close.
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Incumbent regional councillors keep Hawke's Bay seats
12 Oct 2025All sitting Hawke's Bay regional councillors, who ran for re-election, have won back their seats, progress results suggest.
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'Shocked and surprised': New Napier mayor Richard McGrath reacts to victory
12 Oct 2025Getting back to the basics, avoiding tangents and bringing the community along with council decisions will be on the agenda, the incoming McGrath says.
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Pasifika leaders, newcomers compete in Auckland elections
12 Oct 2025This local body election also marked a continued increase in Pacific representation on the city council.
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Aotearoa's first Pasifika mayor elected
13 Oct 2025Fauono Ken Laban's victory in Lower Hutt marks a historic milestone for Pacific representation in local government.
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'Protect our families': Pacific leaders issue measles warning
10 Oct 2025A Pacific leader has called on people to get vaccinated against measles because, "we all know what happened in Samoa".
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Kaipara's local election voter turnout highest in six years
10 Oct 2025The district is still topping the region's voter turnout leaderboard with an overall local voter election return of 38.9 percent.
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Compliance issues surface at Southland water facilities
9 Oct 2025An annual report prepared for a district council meeting showed some drinking water plants had missed the mark.
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'Like a cheap ID card': A designer ranks election hoardings
9 Oct 2025Residents across Nelson Tasman have been bombarded by local election candidates' campaign signage, but whose were the best?
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Mayor vows cheaper redo after $105m pool project halted
9 Oct 2025Mahé Drysdale is "disappointed" $4.7m was spent on "ridiculous" plans to overhaul the Memorial Park aquatic centre, which his council has abandoned.
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141-year-old rural hall for sale - quirks and all
7 Oct 2025Once a place of dancing, celebration, and socialising, Carterton's Belvedere Hall is on the market.
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