Mayoral Profile: Aaron Hawkins

<b>Aaron Hawkins</b><br><b>Age</b>: 29.<br><b>Family/marital status</b>:  In a relationship. <br><b>Occupation</b>: Broadcaster and writer.<br><b>Council experience</b>: N
<b>Aaron Hawkins</b><br><b>Age</b>: 29.<br><b>Family/marital status</b>: In a relationship. <br><b>Occupation</b>: Broadcaster and writer.<br><b>Council experience</b>: None. Ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2010.<br><b>Running for</b>: Mayor and council.
What do you know about the candidates contesting Dunedin's mayoral campaign in 2013? Council reporter Debbie Porteous puts the questions to Aaron Hawkins.

Broadcaster and writer Aaron Hawkins says the Dunedin City Council needs to get more active in looking after its people and the planet. The delicate balance between paying off the city's mountain of debt and not compromising the quality of life in the city was one of the challenges, if not the biggest challenge, for the incoming council, he said, as was shifting the focus from solely cutting spending, to raising revenue outside the rates bill.

Why are you standing?
I offer a strong and principled alternative to the current leadership and believe I have the passion and ideas required to lead Dunedin into becoming a great city for the 21st century.

I think the people deserve more of a say, more often, in how their city is run and I want to spend more time talking to the community and less time talking to ''key stakeholders''.

I'd like to see the people who live here and work here considered as key stakeholders more than they are.

What are the major issues facing Dunedin?
Dunedin needs jobs, sustainable jobs, warm and healthy homes, and safe, efficient and affordable ways to get between them.

We don't have money for big projects, so we need to focus on what we can do together as a community.

We have a large amount of debt as a city but we have to be careful not to fixate solely on paying it back.

I don't see the point in getting the city back in the black if, as a result, nobody wants to live, work or visit here, because we ran down our quality of life in order to pay off our debt mountain faster.

That's a delicate balance, obviously.

We don't hear a lot about the council raising other revenue outside rates but we could certainly see our companies thinking more laterally about ways of raising more revenue, rather than the council focusing only on taking the knife to parts of the DCC organisation.

How would you create more jobs in Dunedin?
I think we can spend more council money locally and look at raising the threshold for the council procurement policy.

We need to see where local procurement isn't happening and why, and, if those services potentially aren't available in Dunedin, why not and do we need to look at them being established here?

We urgently need to work on a policy and a plan to keep graduates in Dunedin or getting alumni to return.

We need a more supportive culture around people and start-up businesses.

We need to protect and promote our wildlife industries and use them to sell Dunedin better to visitors and potential residents.

I'd also like to extend the framework of the warm Dunedin scheme to businesses and commercial landlords that want to implement more efficient energy systems.

This could reduce the cost of doing business and create business and jobs in energy auditing, installation and potentially in engineering, too.

Your views on oil and gas and the hotel development are quite well known. Should the council be throwing its doors open to all and any business?
I think it's important that we keep the integrity of our district plan, which has come out of a democratic process and a lengthy dialogue between the council and the city, rather than overruling it on an ad hoc basis wherever money is being thrown around, particularly with regard to development. I was disappointed the waterfront hotel development argument reduced so quickly down to an all-or-nothing approach, when I think both sides could have been more open to compromise.

I think here it would have been dangerous for the hearings committee to have approved the hotel because it would have made the DCC liable for any appeals etc.

I'm fairly openly and unequivocally opposed to oil and gas exploration.

The benefits are a myth. There will be no jobs, and we are expected to take all of the risk and get none of the reward.

To say we are looking at ways to future-proof our energy supply, our fuel supply, we're looking at alternative transport strategies, that South Dunedin is in a developmental holding pattern because of sea-level rise and how that's going to affect that community - to say we are taking all those things seriously and then to let someone set up that [oil and gas exploration] off the coast of our city and exacerbate all those same problems, is disappointing. Being an early adopter in the fields of high-value low-carbon export economy and renewable energy could potentially be very lucrative for the region, rather than desperately clinging on to the death rattle of the 19th-century energy industry.

What is your vision for Dunedin and how would you make it happen?
I think we have the potential to develop Dunedin into being a great 21st-century small city. We're never going to be mega city and that's great. That's why a lot of people live here. We have to realise Dunedin, for a lot of people, is a lifestyle choice and more people that make that choice have higher expectations with regard to environmental protection, social justice and maintaining and preserving an arts and culture community.

There's a quality of life we need to be able to maintain to attract people to want to work and live here. I don't think the council has done as good a job as it could have of selling that story to tourists or potential residents. We are not that good at celebrating our strengths and successes. That's something we have to overcome as a community and a city, to be proud of all the great things we do.

We are a little too humble sometimes for our own good, I think.

What strengths would you bring as mayor?
We're at a crucial point right now and we need a mayor who's prepared to take a stand when it counts and go in to bat for the concerns of the community and who is prepared to think laterally when it comes to alternative solutions for everything from urban renewal to economic development, town planning and public transport.

Consensus decision-making is important in ensuring the council runs as well as possible but it isn't an end goal in and of itself. An election should be about candidates putting forward their vision for Dunedin and voters deciding which vision they support rather than the process of how they are going to manage. There's a leadership aspect to the mayoralty and it's perhaps become a little more managerial than I would have liked.

Do you intend to vote with Greater Dunedin?
I think the ideological spectrum within that group of candidates is fairly broad and I don't necessarily have a lot in common with all of them but I look forward to working with all elected councillors to push policies that put our people and our planet first.

People won't have anything to worry about me caucusing or bloc voting with Greater Dunedin, to be honest.

When did you join the Green Party?
In 2010; I was a member of the party when I ran last time.

Why are you standing specifically as a Green candidate this time then?
There has been a long tradition in local body politics with mayors and councillors that have had strong party political affiliations. I think it's more honest to declare my affiliations and what my values and principles are. If people support that then they will vote for me. Nothing has changed in the way I feel and think since the last election.

What community involvement have you had?
I sit on the board of the Blue Oyster Arts Trust and the Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust, so have some experience in running year-round community projects on fairly small budgets. Through the radio station (Radio 1) I've provided platforms for community groups that wouldn't ordinarily get them.

I was writing regularly on local government issues for the late D-Scene and actively participated in DCC consultation processes. I sit on street corners wearing fluorescent vests collecting change for everybody from the Night Shelter Trust to Rape Crisis.

How are you funding your campaign?
I'm funding it myself with support from campaign donations and fundraising events and I've had some support from the local branch of the Green Party.

How much will you spend on it?
About $15,000.

Who are your supporters?
Green Party supporters, and I'm getting a lot of support across the spectrum from people who want to see the DCC more active in looking after our people and our planet and celebrating our strengths and our success and making sure our future generations get to enjoy the same opportunities we've had.

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