Whakatāne School Debate Fires Up Mayoral Race

Wednesday, 27 August 2025, 5:37 pm
Article: Diane McCarthy - Local Democracy Reporter

Wilson James loves big game fishing, Nándor Tánczos is learning to kickbox and Mark Inman has taught and helped shaped communities in Saudi Arabia.

These are some of the revelations that came to light at Whakatāne's first Meet the Candidates event.

The public was invited to come along and get to know all six mayoral candidates at an event organised by Whakatāne High School’s Interact Club at the school hall.

Each candidate gave a two-minute introduction before tackling some questions posed to them by students and the public.

Head Girl Cassie Bennett was MC, asking, among other questions, why the candidates wanted to be mayor, their interests outside local government, their views on the Rex Morpeth Recreation Hub, climate change and the role of youth voices in decision making.

One of the questions candidates struggled with most was a two parter – their strengths and areas they most needed to improve.

While all the councillors managed to list their strengths, the second part of the question was largely ignored or forgotten despite it being repeated several times.

Mr Tánczos, alone, admitted he could strengthen his financial literacy, saying he planned to do further training through the Institute of Directors, of which he is already a member.

“But I’m never going to be an accountant and I’m not sure you want an accountant as mayor anyway,” he added.

Mr James said his top three priorities for his first year as mayor would be advocating with central government for the Pekatahi Bridge, housing and hospital services.

Philip Jacobs’ was to improve financial management of council, peel back the operating deficit, and making some hard decisions about three waters.

Mr Inman wanted to investigate creation of a retirement village, ways to drive economic growth, and housing outside of Whakatāne.

Mr Tánczos could not stick to three, saying he wanted to make council more transparent to the community, address housing development and climate change, advocate for Pekatahi Bridge to be double-laned and control council spending.

Mr Iles wanted the council to get out into the communities and communicate better than it did now and prioritising infrastructure over nice-to-haves and rates affordability.

Dr Luca wanted to use council assets to generate income, focus on critical infrastructure and introduce the use of mobile phones for more democratic consultation.

Questions were then opened up to the floor and began with Toni Boynton asking whether candidates supported retaining Māori wards.

Most did, with only Mr Jacobs stating he did not support them. He believed council should have one ward for all councillors.

“With a 10-councillor ward several Māori plus other ethnicities can be elected. All they need to do is get 1100 votes, or 9.1 percent of the vote under an STV voting system.”

Dr Luca said though he supported Māori wards, with the referendum coming up, democracy was about listening to the majority of people.

“That’s what we’re here for, so let’s hear what they have to say.”

The question that had most of the councillors stumped was from Danae Lee, who asked why all the mayoral candidates were men.

Most of the candidates were at a loss, suggesting it would be a better question for women to answer.

Mr Tánczos addressed the issue of the high levels of abuse from the public female politicians received.

“Women politicians are subject to a level of abuse that males just are not,” he said.

He said when he was in Parliament he had death threats occasionally, but to hear of the toxic abuse women politicians get, particularly women of colour, is horrific.

So, any woman who stands for a position like this is incredibly brave.”

As mayor he would be keen to support women into leadership roles so that there were more women in a position to stand for mayor next term.

-Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

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