Who should be Invercargill's next mayor?

With locals due to go to the polls in early October, we're asking the candidates for their opinions on the major issues facing the district. We'll run the answers over the next five weeks.

This week we asked: What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

Here's are the candidates' answers, in alphabetical order:

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Toni Biddle

Age: 46

Occupation: Senior Advisor for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, former Deputy Mayor of ICC

What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

Balancing the need to bring innovation and growth to our great city and ensuring Invercargill is on a safe financial footing. We’re facing a cost-of-living crisis, a wave of reforms and recovery from a pandemic. We must support investment in the right areas that will attract and retain people to our city. New industries are knocking at our door, and we must be ready to welcome and support them before the opportunity is lost. The council’s job is to ensure we have the right infrastructure to support these new industries, foster an environment that enables the creation of new jobs, drives growth and provides opportunities for all residents and ratepayers. People move to Invercargill for employment, career opportunities and affordable homes – we need to do everything we can to help. If our people do leave, we want them to come home. Attraction and retention are key focus areas in this next term while making our home a better place to raise our families.

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Ria Bond

Age: Not supplied

Occupation: Former NZFirst List MP based in Invercargill. Former skilled migrant co-ordinator for Venture Southland, Contractor, Business NZ Mentor

What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

There no one answer to just being one issue we have multiple issues.

Southland, like other regions, is facing a workforce shortage due to an aging population. To allow businesses to grow and develop, skilled staff are required. Attracting migrants to the region and also in helping to ensure that skilled workers remain in Southland is vital. Without people, new businesses and industries cannot develop, and existing industries cannot be extended.

The Skilled workforce shortage is not a new problem, a study conducted in 2008 by Venture Southland led to the Southland Regional Labour Market Assessment being commissioned. The report highlighted the need for the Southland region to develop plans to increase its labour supply to meet the projected shortage. Southland is not alone with this challenge, which highlights the importance of implementing a strategy now to minimise the impact in an increasingly competitive market. What did southland do in 2014? What can council do in 2023? Retention and Upskilling – focus should be given to ensuring those within the community, including recent migrants and international students, are retained, and trained to meet local skill shortages. We need the SIT to be training what our future workforce is going to need. I will be focussed on ensuring Government plays a part in helping us do this.

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Stevey Chernishov

Age: 41

Occupation: Educator

What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

Our biggest issue is that Invercargill's people are unaware of how incredibly awesome & talented we are. Although, we do understand what we are capable of on some levels - we have lost perspective on what is possible here. Invercargill city service providers & the surrounding lands have traditionally been recognised as some of the most productive in the world, we have been seen as New Zealand’s most financially empowered place; a stable people with the lowest debt.

Southerners have been known as innovative, inventors, pioneers & dynamic personalities who create new products. But we have lost some perspective.

We need to be more idealistic, to explore interesting ideas, & to continue highly prizing morality.

My vision is to build resilient, fun local community. I am focused on shifting our vibe & setting up a brighter future in the South where individuals feel empowered & have the resources needed to go well.

It is time to embrace determination, intuition and inspiration again.

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Nobby Clark

Age: 71

Occupation: Current Deputy Mayor - ICC

What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

Our closed museum. I will cancel the proposed museum collection facility at Tisbury, that costs $10.3m and delays the new build by 2-3 years. I will leave the collection in the pyramid museum and build a new museum on the adjacent site. Overall savings of $15-20m and 3 years sooner.

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Marcus Lush

Age: 57

Occupation: Broadcaster

What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

Our skills shortage. I believe we need to make Invercargill the welcome city to ensure we can get all the dentists, psychologists, rest home workers etc that we need. And once they move here, they will stay and fall in love with our city. Our residents deserve to see a dentist, or receive mental health support when they need it to prevent situations worsening. 

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Tom Morton

Age: 61 years

Occupation: Marketing /Small business (dog walking)

What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

The housing crisis is the biggest issue facing Invercargill. For example, an article in the Otago Daily Times on 18 November last year said that the Southland housing forum stated 1659 housing dwellings need to be built this year, and 3415 by 2025. Too few houses are being built, unfortunately. City councils throughout New Zealand are unfortunately overly stringent on enforcing their own unnecessary building regulations, as well as the national government's building regulations.

City councils zone places as industrial land, it therefore remains undeveloped and useless, when it should be used for high-density, up-market private residential properties. There is also a need for lower cost housing that is also visually pleasing to look at, so those who stay in it feel proud that they live in housing, even if it is government housing. They will then take ownership of it.

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Noel James Peterson

Age: 69

Occupation: Bluff Community Board Member – Mayoral – Councillor Candidate -Invercargill City Council Election 2022

What, in your opinion, is the major issue facing Invercargill and what will you do to address it if elected?

There are multiple major issues rather than one standalone issue, which should be considered together, Mayoral leadership is in my view key to resolving the rest of the issues. Consider the challenges, long term climate mitigation for a city built partly on or close to a geographical flood plain, consider future water supply options, the wellbeing of people who live work & play here in Invercargill – Southland (which needs to be considered as a whole, we are one in a regional sense) modern healthy housing, environmental & economic wellbeing, a shift of focus for local government to community support are important major issues that come to mind, there are many more.

Restructure of Local Government to enable you the citizen to be empowered to decide how you want your community to function in a democratic way, creating a healthy vibrant city within reach. Good suitable transport we all must have, to move about freely. Gradually shifting to clean technology, imagine no longer needing to own a vehicle, just call for transport on your phone, which drives itself is an option in the future. How this occurs is a matter for us as a community to decide over the coming years.

Jacqueline Walter

Age - 54

Occupation: Mother and primary teacher

(Did not provide a photo)

The major issue is lack of representative leadership. We do not feel that these leaders are us. Council ethics abide outside of our everyday lived experiences and thought processes - trust is low and voter apathy is high. We want to trust that our council takes ambassadorship seriously and is running our collective business with excellence.

My campaign diary provides an opportunity to know what sort of character I am, where my values lie, and the style of my leadership. Along the way, I explain how it came about that I wanted to be our PM (prior to deciding to run for mayor) and I lead us through the political concept of 'All Us Moderates'. We are the Majority. The first step in taking hold of our power is to vote for hope.

Aligning with the importance of strong representative leadership, we need to kick mainstream media to touch. They've lost the plot. The widening gap between the editors and us is now beyond a joke. If I were elected as mayor, I'd keep giving them serious cheek until it's sorted.

• Candidates Darren Ludlow and Sir Tim Shadbolt did not provide a response.