Q+A: Lianne Dalziel
Balance of Power Has Shifted in Christchurch: Dalziel
The re-elected mayor of Christchurch, Lianne Dalziel, says the restoring of decision-making powers to locals in the city means her new term is going to be different to the last.
“The balance of power has shifted. So it’s not completely that the government is walking away, and they’ve never said that they would. They have invested a lot in our city, and they want to continue to do so,” she told Q+A’s Jessica Mutch.
“But what they have said is that it is time to start that programme of restoring local leadership.
“Democracy has been missing in action in Christchurch. We had ECan still not entirely democratic. I mean, I always say it’s a little bit like being a little bit pregnant – you either are democratic or you’re not. And it’s not there yet. But it will be at the end of the next three years.”
END
Q
+ A
Episode
31
LIANNE
DALZIEL
Interviewed by JESSICA
MUTCH
JESSICA Christchurch mayor
Lianne Dalziel joins me now. Congratulations, and thank you
for being with me this
morning.
LIANNE Thank
you,
Jessica.
JESSICA You’ve
signed up again for a very tough job. When you got that
call, when you heard the results, what went through your
head?
LIANNE Well,
you know, I probably had that moment cemented in my mind
when I made the decision to run again. It’s not like last
time. Last time we came in, we opened the books, we realised
that we had to get our finances in order, and some of the
aspirations that we had really had to be put on hold. We
didn’t have our insurance settled. All of those things are
now sorted, so actually, coming on for another three years,
I feel way more optimistic. We’ve got a whole new
environment. CERA’s gone. We’ve got Regenerate
Christchurch, a whole new regeneration planning approach,
which engages communities, that gives them a real say in
what their city’s going to look like. So, you know, that,
to me, is something quite exciting about this
term.
JESSICA In
your heart of hearts, how hungry were you for another term
in this job or how much of this is out of a sense of duty,
out of a sense of
service?
LIANNE I
think the first time that I stood, it was that sense of duty
and service to the city where I was born and raised and
lived all my life. And leaving Parliament was a hard
decision to make – I felt my time wasn’t done there. But
yeah, I’m really looking forward to what is an incredible
opportunity for our city. We can actually take advantage of
the tragedy that has befallen us and build a fantastic
21st-century city. You know, people have commented that we
are not there, but we can achieve that. And that’s
something that I really want to focus on. I mean, one thing
is that since well before the earthquakes, we wanted more
than 20,000 people to be living inside the four avenues. We
can actually achieve that now. So that’s one of the goals
that I really want to focus my attention
on.
JESSICA How do
you juggle that relationship with central government?
Because particularly in Christchurch, it’s looming
large.
LIANNE I
think people will say that I’ve actually done quite a good
job in that regard. A lot of people said that a former
Labour Member of Parliament and Cabinet minister wouldn’t
be able to form a close working relationship with central
government. I’ve really proved people, you know, wrong in
that regard. I have been able to form a good relationship.
I’ve had a lot of input into designing the new legislative
framework that has taken the place of the Canterbury
Earthquake Recovery Act. And, you know, to be honest, I
believe that if I hadn’t been the mayor for the last three
years, we wouldn’t be in such a good position as we are
now.
JESSICA Do
you have enough power from central government, though? How
does that go? How do you balance
that?
LIANNE Well,
it has changed. The balance of power has shifted. So it’s
not completely that the government is walking away, and
they’ve never said that they would. They have invested a
lot in our city, and they want to continue to do so. But
what they have said is that it is time to start that
programme of restoring local leadership. Democracy has been
missing in action in Christchurch. We had ECan still not
entirely democratic. I mean, I always say it’s a little
bit like being a little bit pregnant – you either are
democratic or you’re not. And it’s not there yet. But it
will be at the end of the next three years. But we have
elected members on there. That means there’s much more
that we can do together. I want public transport to come
back to the city. It is so vital that we get those links
between Selwyn and Waimakariri, which have experienced
significant
growth.
JESSICA As
well as transport, there were also other issues of water and
asset sales that dominated the election campaign. Do you
feel like John Minto has forced you to firm up some of your
stance, particularly on asset
sales?
LIANNE No, I
think the question around the— because the election
result— One of the side effects of the election result was
that when you don’t have a high-profile, hotly contested
political campaign – which it wasn’t – then you
don’t get such a good turnout. There were 42% in the last
election campaign when Paul Lonsdale ran against me. But the
time before that, it was over 50% turnout, and that was
because you had the high-profile campaign of Sir Bob Parker
and Jim Anderton. So it wasn’t a high-profile campaign. It
was good to have issues debated, but a lot of those issues
are actually dependent on the city working collaboratively
with the region and the other districts in order to make a
real
change.
JESSICA And
we will be talking about that voter turnout a little bit
later in the show. But we’ll have to leave it there. Thank
you very much for your time this morning, and
congratulations
again.
LIANNE Thank
you.