Our elected representatives

Our council chamber

Local authority boundaries North Island

Local authority boundaries South Island
Maps showing the boundaries of regional and territorial authorities.

Choosing the council
How to enrol, how to vote, and how to stand for a range of local elected positions

Māori constituencies
Environment Bay of Plenty is the only local authority in New Zealand to institute Māori constituencies. Read about their reasons and their process.

Kids voting
Auckland City Council provides schools in its area with a resource to help them understand how elections work.

STV
What Single transferrable voting is, and how it works.

What a mayor does
The ways the role is interpreted is as individual as the people – read on to see how some mayors work.

What councillors do

What standing committees do

What community board members do

What school trustees do

What district health
board members do

What licensing trust members do

What district health board members do

Wairarapa District Health Board at Masterton

Every three years, in conjunction with other local authority elections, elections are held for members of 21 district health boards (DHBs) around New Zealand. Up to eleven members sit on each DHB – seven members are elected by the local community.

Anyone can stand as a candidate, so long as they are a New Zealand citizen, have registered on the electoral roll, have not been in prison or been made bankrupt, don’t have a conflict of interest (nor failed to declare conflict of interest in a previous nomination), and haven’t been removed from a DHB previously.

Elections are held under the STV voting system in which voters rank their desired candidates in order of preference (see page 16 for a brief description of STV). The Ministry of Health website page www.moh.govt.nz/dhbelections provides some information about the elections and also the appointments process for potential candidates.

LGA 2002 requires councils to take a community role and to listen to community values and priorities. DHBs have a similar role in providing a community voice in matters related to health and disability services. In performing their roles, the boards have special consultation requirements under legislation. They need to give the people in their local communities an opportunity to be heard and have their views considered.

The direct election aspect of DHB governance is just one way New Zealand communities can have a direct say in the type and mix of health and disability services provided in their local area.
In addition to this, the DHB has advisory and consultative committees to enable communication between the board and members of the community. Statutory consultative committees include, among others, disability support advisory, hospital advisory, and community and public health advisory committees. DHBs must have Māori representation on their committees. The committee meetings are all open to the public and agenda and minutes are available.