The People’s Choice was spawned from Christchurch 2021, a group that envisaged a city of social equity and environmental prosperity by what will now be next year.
Christchurch 2021 was set up in 1995 by a small group of Labour Christchurch city councillors who believed a broader political group was needed to provide a pathway into local government for a more diverse range of people. This included those with ties to affiliated political parties and those without.
During its existence, the “incorporated society” saw a considerable amount of its candidates elected to the local body positions, including former mayor Garry Moore who served three terms at the helm from 1998 to 2007.
A melange of personalities with differing political persuasions formed the grouping in its early days, former city councillor and member of parliament Denis O’Rourke who represented both Labour and New Zealand First during his career was one of the founding members of Christchurch 2021. Even former National Party MP Nicky Wagner sat on the group’s executive committee for a period of time.
However, in Moore’s opinion, the group began to stray away from the bipartisan vision of its founders, Moore happened to be one of those founders.
“It started as a joint venture between Labour candidates and candidates with no affiliation. But what began to happen was that the Labour people that slowly took it over, they turned it into Labour in drag,” he said.
Distance began to grow between Christchurch 2021 and Moore during his last term as mayor in what was described as an “extremely bitter parting of ways,” by The Press.
“They [Christchurch 2021] decided I had fallen outside their definition of what somebody from 2021 should be, for me that is absolute animal farm behaviour, some pigs more equal than others kind of thing.”
David Close, a former member of Christchurch 2021 and a city councillor for 24 years, said relationships between Moore and the wider group “deteriorated.”
“Garry as mayor did not like to be constrained by the association with the Labour Party so as mayor he followed his own path, which is okay as a mayor but it upset a lot of people,” he said.
“Garry was a tremendous individualist and less of a team player.”
In the lead-up to the 2010 local body elections, Moore called for the group to be disbanded.
This came after an underwhelming result in the 2007 elections where the number of council seats the group occupied was cut from six to two and its CDHB members were cut in half from four to two. The Christchurch 2021 mayoral candidate Megan Woods, now a Labour MP and cabinet minister, also lost by more than 14,000 votes to Bob Parker that year.
At the time, Moore said this dismal return was down to the fact the group had paid the price of moving away from a collaborative approach to a Westminster style where issues were “black and white, winners and losers.”
“The days of political parties in local government have gone,” he told The Press in 2009.
Christchurch 2021 was then soon rebranded as The People’s Choice as part of the late Jim Anderton’s unsuccessful campaign for the mayoralty in 2010 where he lost out to Parker who succeeded in securing a second term.
However, this strong membership to the Labour Party within The People’s Choice has seen it develop a reputation of bringing central government practice into local government, something which many see as inappropriate, believing political affiliations should be pushed aside and commitments to communities prioritised within the local democracy landscape.
Former independent city councillor Ali Jones said the party politics she observed from The People’s Choice during her tenure, which included caucusing and block voting, was one of the reasons she chose not to stand for a second term.
“I don’t believe there is a place for central government politics and practices in local body politics,” she said.
The People’s Choice chairman Joe Davies defended this behaviour as “natural aspects of belonging to a political organisation.”
“We are proud to work together as party members because this is how to affect the most positive change for our communities,” he said.
The decisions, policies and overall direction of the grouping were not influenced by Labour Party figures in Wellington, Davies said.
“We have strong links to Labour but this notion that we are put under pressure from Wellington is not the case in my experience.
“At the end of the day, it is not up to independent political figures or those opposed to our principles or policies to determine whether or not we should or shouldn’t be active in local government in Christchurch. It is up to the people to determine whether or not they agree with our manifesto and our principles through voting for our candidates at the ballot box.”
The People’s Choice did receive a decent vote of confidence from the public during last year’s local body elections.
It currently occupies seven seats out of 17 around the city council table, including the position of deputy mayor which is held by the grouping’s caucus leader Andrew Turner.
Environment Canterbury chairwoman Jenny Hughey is also affiliated to The People’s Choice and is accompanied by three other members around the regional council table of 14.
Three out of the seven community boards are also led by members of The People’s Choice and 11 of the grouping’s representatives occupy seats as lay members on the various boards.
The city council’s longest-serving representative Yani Johanson has been as a councillor since 2007 and before that was a community board member for six years.
He formed part of Christchurch 2021 during the early years of his political career and has been a member of The People’s Choice since its inception in 2010.
He said he first chose to run under the banner of Christchurch 2021 because it shared his vision for Christchurch of environmental sustainability and social equity.
While there can be differences in the way members of the grouping vote on certain issues, The People’s Choice has gained a reputation for having a strong consensus against the sale of publicly-owned assets.
“We do not consider asset sales to be a prudent response to short term financial difficulties or a need to raise funds. Ownership of productive assets helps reduce rates increases through dividends; the sale of those assets reduces financial resilience and flexibility, reducing the strategic opportunities available to council,” the group’s manifesto reads.
Fourth term city councillor and member of centre-right grouping Independent Citizens James Gough accused The People’s Choice of “burying its head in the sand” on issues like asset sales.
“The People’s Choice voted against a strategic review of our asset holdings,” he said.
“I would describe this as a quite a damaging stance to purposefully be uninformed, to block vote to not even review this and see if we could get a better return elsewhere.”
During the previous local body elections, The People’s Choice managed to retain seven councillors around the table, giving it close to a majority around the 17-seat table.
Independent Citizens, which has a history of having candidates with ties to the National Party, grew its membership at the table to three from just one. While it has formed and maintained strong relationships with a few independents, it still lacks the numbers The People’s Choice can muster up on issues alongside its left-leaning allies.
“If you continue with this make-up of council for another term, it would probably be the single worst thing for the central city,” said Gough.
“I think there has been very little help from the council [to the central city] and I put it down to there being numbers around the table that see stimulating the economy as corporate welfare.”
These initiatives included a public-private partnership in providing first-hour free-parking across all the parking buildings throughout the central city and a rates remission for residents moving into the central city to help meet the council’s goal of having 20,000 living within the city’s four major avenues by 2028, among other things.
Priorities for The People’s Choice lie in ensuring a provision of affordable up to standard housing for all and developing an accessible, economical and zero-carbon based transport system.
Environmental policies from the grouping look to uphold safe and secure drinking water for all as well as swimmable rivers by prioritising council investment into cleaning up urban waterways. The People’s Choice also stresses the importance of urgently addressing climate change within its manifesto.
The economic policy of the group aims to allow all people to get ahead and eliminate poverty by enabling employment opportunities for all. Its finance policy states that the rates burden should be shared across communities “fairly,” with the grouping believing those who can afford to contribute more should do so.
Community development and enhancing engagement in democratic processes alongside building on the partnerships with Mana Whenua and fostering the city’s diversity are other objectives.
