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 licensing trusts do

Licensing trusts have a unique social mandate – to sell alcohol with care, moderately and responsibly. Profits are not the sole objective of the trusts, and with publicly elected boards and community ownership, supporters argue that there is a direct accountability back to the public. In areas with licensing trusts, elections are held as part of local authority elections, with the same rules for voting and being a candidate.

Staff of the Rimutaka Licensing Trust.

Find out more!
www.decisionmaker.co.nz

For contact details for all councils, district health boards and licensing trusts, and for other entities that work with and support local government:
www.lgnz
www.dia.govt.nz

or click on the link at the foot of this page to go to our Directory for Citizenship Education.