With just one year until the next local government elections, getting more young people elected is a challenge across the country and Tasman is no different.
Despite having 14 elected members – a mayor and 13 councillors – none of Tasman district’s current representatives are under the age of 30, unlike almost one-third of its residents.
Joni Tomsett was 29 when she ran for a seat on the council last election. She missed out by just 22 votes.
Having previously sat on the Motueka Community Board, she ran for council in the hopes of ensuring the district’s trajectory aligned with the future she believed her generation envisioned.
“Tasman District Council faces many wicked problems in terms of housing, transport, and the environment, and planning for those in a sustainable manner is a big job,” she said.
“I wanted to be involved.”
A staunch believer in representation, Tomsett said that everyone experiences the district differently and younger people can offer a different view to consider changes.
But getting onto council is not without its barriers.
Understanding council processes and the complex challenges facing the district, as well as financial sacrifices, were the key hurdles for Tomsett.
“It’s important to acknowledge how time-poor and financially-constrained some young people are, and it can be quite time consuming for people to engage with council processes,” she said.
Members of the Richmond Youth Council agreed.
Vice-chairwoman Bonnie Hughes, 15, said the consideration of the youth perspective was “vital” but she wouldn’t currently consider running for council in the future.
“It’s a hard thing for a young person to do.”
Familiarity with the council was low as it wasn’t taught about at school, she said, and younger people were further disincentivised from running because of the “insane workload” and poor remuneration on which it was difficult to raise a family.
Youth council member Jack Hall, 14, concurred, adding that there were social barriers in people’s perception of who should be sitting on council.
As a result, Hughes said “youth perspective isn’t being heard because there isn’t that balance of ages and representation”.
Hall described the lack of input from young people as a problem.
“We’re also the voice that needs to be heard because … we are the future.”
Safeguarding the future of the district for young people is a priority for councillor Trindi Walker, who is a district council representative on the Richmond Youth Council.
“If we don’t listen to their voice and look at what their needs are and their wishes and wants, they’re not going to be here.”
She said there were many barriers for younger people getting involved, from remuneration to the structure of local government, but her current priority was trying to shift perceptions.
“There is a big gap between what they [young people] believe local government is and the part that they could play, to what they’re currently able to see or deliver on.”
‘Stigma’ of youth council engagement shrinking
But across the road, in Nelson, it appears that perceptions are already shifting. Three of the city’s 13 elected representatives are under 30.
At 24, deputy mayor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens is the youngest person on the city council and said there has been “amazing growth” in the number of young elected members across the country.
Only 7.2% of elected representatives were under 40 in 2016. That has more than doubled in the years since to 14.6% in 2022.
“When you haven’t had that representation, it’s hard to see local councils necessarily as a space that you’re meant to be or that you belong, and, gratefully, that’s something that’s changing quite quickly.”
They said issues like climate change and housing unaffordability have been a “driving force” to encourage younger people into politics.
“What we’re seeing is young people realising that if they want the kinds of future-focused decisions that we need, they actually need to step into that space and make it happen. No one is coming along to do it for them.”
Nelson Youth Council chairwoman Ayla Turner, 17, agreed that the “stigma” around young people’s engagement in council was shrinking.
“We have come a long way, it is on the up.”
Having more accurate representation of different demographics in the city helped to strengthen understanding and decision-making for the community, she said.
“It means that there’s not that generational gap,” she said.
“We might not have had the amount of time alive as those people, but we’ve all had different experiences.”
Turner encouraged young people who genuinely care for their community and are thinking about running for council to do so.
“That care is then what makes council,” she said.
“We have an important voice and a voice that should be heard.”
Tomsett is now living in Australia and won’t be running next year, but she said districts can “benefit hugely” from the perspective of young people.
“You will learn as you go and there are many people who will be so happy to help support you.”
Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
