Candidates Andrew Dowling, Louise van der Voort and Nat Jamieson were asked about the mine on several occasions by about 20 concerned members of the community who attended the meeting, hosted by Grey Power Central Otago, in Alexandra on Saturday.
Mr Dowling, in his introductory speech, discussed how the issue had polarised the community and how he hoped to find a middle ground.
One of the issues brought up by the audience was oversight of the mine, particularly who would monitor its consent conditions if governance changes to regional councils came to be and what oversight would cost ratepayers.
None of the candidates made firm statements about how the consent would monitored, but all agreed specialist oversight was needed.
Mr Jamieson answered first and said there would need to be a dedicated role of overseeing the mine and that it could not be left to a council full of people lacking expertise.
Mr Dowling said the mining industry could not be left to self-govern as that had not worked out in the past.
‘‘We can’t let ourselves be talked into that and told about the efficiencies of it.’’
He proposed looking to the government for guidelines on how things should work as the best solution.
Ms van der Voort said the burden of funding consent compliance should be Santana’s, the consent holder, not the community’s.
The functions that would normally be done by the regional council would still have to be done, either by district councils or by the national government.
‘‘We need to be certainly qualified people able to do that otherwise external resources shouldn’t be at the cost of the community’’
Each candidate spoke for four minutes before the audience was able to ask questions.
Also on the audience’s mind were water, infrastructure and keeping up with growth in the region.
Voting in the by-election closes on March 3.
