Ruapehu District’s youngest councillor is imposing a term limit of six consecutive years – two back-to-back terms – on his service.
Kuru Ketu, 33, is also calling on fellow councillors to help build a leadership pipeline to the council chambers.
“For those around the table to be effective, fresh, relevant and active, a limit of six consecutive years for holding an elected position is appropriate.”
A term limit would protect local government from “career politicians, stagnating progress and gatekeeping succession”.
Regardless of what structures emerge from the Government’s looming council shake-up, Ketu says local government needs a succession plan.
The first-term councillor, who was elected in October to one of three Māori ward seats, wants to provide opportunities for young people to become skilled governors on boards, trusts and councils across his community.
“We’ve actually got no line of succession. I was the youngest person that stood. I saw that the average age of a councillor is around 60, excluding myself. And that scared me a little bit.”
Ketu said he was not suggesting fellow councillors should follow his lead on limiting their terms, but there was a lack of focus on succession, and a limited number of potential future leaders waiting in the wings.
“Where we stay on for long periods, we can create dependencies by our communities and stagnation in the succession process.”
Ketu launched governance capability training sessions within three months of being sworn in, hiring out the Taumarunui arts centre at his own expense to run weekly workshops for rangatahi aged 16 to 40.
“I’d put on a little kai and keep the sessions short, focused and informal.”
The sessions cover a range of areas, including local government, Māori land and marae trusts, corporate and whānau-based governance. Those attending have been Māori.
Ketu said people often feared governance.
“They do not want to be front and centre, and absolutely do not want to be in the line of scrutiny and criticism.”
His focus was on sharing practical skills for rangatahi to enter governance roles equipped to handle the responsibility.
“Leadership is a heavy burden and governance is complex, but if you have the tools and a foundation to guide you, you can be satisfied that you’ve done everything you could to do a good job.”
Ketu hopes to take the training into existing governance environments, such as the council’s new youth council, and says other pressing areas for succession are post-settlement governance entities, which manage redress from Treaty of Waitangi settlements.
David (Rabbit) Nottage, who is serving his fifth term and is consistently one of the highest-polling councillors, said he would not consider limiting his term at this point.
“I get out in the community and make myself available.
“If I started dropping off in the polls, I’d seriously consider flagging it, but I still got the second-highest polling in this round.
“I’m always open to new ideas, but I’m happy with the way the system is.”
Nottage said it often took a term for councillors to get to grips with “rules and regulations, the long-term planning, the annual plans”.
He said knowledge accumulated by longer-serving members was often critical to decision-making.
“I learnt a lot from councillors before me who had been on for a few terms.”
Nottage said he supports the idea of councillors pitching in with succession training, but said it was sometimes hard to get people to stand, and he was not sure how interested younger people were.
“When we have public meetings, we very rarely see the younger generation. It’s mostly middle-aged or seniors.”
Fourth-term councillor Viv Hoeta agrees that the council should help develop lines of succession.
However, she said limiting the term would not encourage more people to stand.
She said councillors who were active and connected to their community tended to bring constituent views back to the council table.
Hoeta said some councillors were “seat warmers” who were not community-focused or only spoke on topics that interested them.
“Some … do get bogged down in the weeds, forget who they are there for and become disconnected with the community.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
