To make local government more democratic, transparent, and accountable I propose:

• Christchurch City Council investigate moving to a more representational electoral system, where no votes are wasted, as is practiced already in other local elections in New Zealand.

• That all council voting be recorded in full on all decisions, and made publicly available.

• That, if elected, I commit to fortnightly public forums in the ward where residents can come and talk to me about their priorities - varying location from public venues(libraries, community halls), coffee shops, pubs, or anywhere else that will have me.

Territorial authorities, like City Councils, have a significant amount of power and influence over quality of life for all of us. Each of us interacts with core infrastructure and services that are the responsibility of the council every single day. Even so, voter turnout is very low - often 40% or less of eligible voters actually use their democratic rights in local elections in Christchurch.

This issue is simple - if voting felt important, residents would vote. If it doesn’t feel important, that’s a failure of the Council and the candidates.

To remedy this we need a change. We need to know that our votes count. Once our votes are counted we need to know what the Council is pursuing, and how our elected representatives are voting. Finally, we need elected members to be accountable to their constituents. Democracy, Transparency, and Accountability.