Current mayor Phil Mauger’s biggest threat is city councillor Sara Templeton, but there are six others vying for the chains in Ōtautahi – including several serial candidates and a notorious white supremacist.
Serious candidates
Phil Mauger
Phil Mauger is Christchurch’s current mayor, running on a platform of “let’s get more stuff done”. He told The Spinoff in 2022 that he was concerned about housing intensification in Christchurch’s suburbs. As mayor, he has repeatedly suggested that Christchurch should make a bid to host the Commonwealth Games, until a feasibility study in September 2024 said no more money should be spent pursuing the idea. Mauger was also a major supporter of Christchurch’s Te Kaha stadium, which is on track to be completed next year, and has been known to make Spinoff senior writer Alex Casey’s heart swell with pride. He’s promising to “keep rates affordable”, complete infrastructure on time and invest in Christchurch’s water systems.
Before becoming mayor, Mauger ran a construction company. His son Jordan was on the second season of The Bachelor NZ, when he exclusively revealed to The Spinoff that he had flipped a coin to decide who should win. Hopefully this isn’t an election strategy that the people of Christchurch will copy.
Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger (Photo: Shanti Mathias)
Sara Templeton
Templeton is a city councillor – she’s been representing the Heathcote ward since 2016, so has almost a decade of experience at council. She’s been particularly supportive of alternative transport modes, like cycling, buses and public transport, and one of her campaign promises is to make progress on light rail. Templeton is also promising to improve Christchurch’s water network, including stormwater, retain council-owned assets and – minor but noticeable – look into the problem with right-turn arrows in Christchurch. Templeton is a former teacher who was involved in post-earthquake community recovery in Ōtautahi. This term, she held the council climate change portfolio. She is not seeking re-election as a councillor, signalling that she is very focused on her mayoralty bid.
Serial candidates
Tubby Hansen
Hansen has run in every single election (general and local) since 1969, so his name will not be unfamiliar to voters. In an interview with Stuff he blamed an injury on an electro-magnetic laser from the government. Hansen uses the candidate booklet and ads in local newspaper The Press as free-association writing exercises to convey his ideas about the world. Seats in bus shelters, uneven footpaths and “tingle rays” have been mentioned in his candidate blurbs. He used to work at the freezing works and a nail factory, but is now retired.
Tubby Hansen with his rusty and mildewed truck, which he believes is being sabotaged. (Photo: Alden Williams/Stuff)
Blair Anderson
Anderson has stood for council five times before, the last time in 2019. He is a campaigner for drug law reform, and has a cannabis conviction. He has worked as a dog trainer, and continued living in the Christchurch red zone after the area had been decommissioned for residential housing. “Look, there’s people who would probably say a few ning nongs are running and they might well be right,” he told RNZ in 2019, explaining why he thought that minor candidates should still be included in mayoral debates.
Peter Wakeman
Wakeman has run in Wellington and Christchurch council elections and general elections. His candidate statement for the 2024 Lambton byelection in Wellington described him as “Wakeman, vegan gf, former passenger jet pilot has a slogan wake up or pay up” [sic]. In an interview with Stuff in 2013, he didn’t answer questions about why he’s run for office so many times, repeatedly diverting the conversation to Reserve Bank policies. When running in 2022, he said he wants to see more food grown in the Ōtākaro-Avon River Corridor in the city’s red zone. When running in Banks Peninsula in the 2023 national election, he said he wanted to become an MP to get faster answers to his questions than by using the OIA process. In 2024, he made a Media Council complaint about an article published on RNZ which he said did not make it clear enough that Israel was blocking aid from Gaza.
Seriously into gardening
Thomas Healey
There isn’t heaps of information available about Thomas Healey, but he describes himself as a gardener and forager. He’s also an advocate of growing more food in the Ōtākaro-Avon Corridor, saying in a submission to council in 2024 that he didn’t have much space to grow food in the community housing where he lives in Heathcote Valley. He has a campaign Facebook page but no clear policies.
Seriously…?
Philip Arps
Philip Arps is a white supremacist who has a conviction for sharing footage of the March 15 attacks. His sentence was 21 months in prison and his release conditions included not being allowed to contact Muslims without prior approval from his probation officer. He has 30 other criminal convictions. He previously owned an insulation company with Nazi-themed branding. He has previously attempted to run for the Te Aratai College school board. His affiliation on the nominations form is “Independant Nationalist New Zealand”. Notably, “independent” is spelled incorrectly.
Nikora Nitro
Nitro, a former Mana Party member, is another mayoral candidate with a criminal conviction, for soliciting sex from a teenager in exchange for money, cigarettes and a cellphone top-up. He’s known for a series of dubious failed businesses, including running a cafe without a licence or food safety protocols, setting up massage tables inside, advertising it as a “male cruise club” and failing to pay rent. A video on his Instagram page says he is running for “low rates 3.5%, Adequate housing, City Aspirations, Nationwide Goals, Economic Prosperity, Environmental Gains.” He also stood for mayor in 2022 and for council in the 2021 Coastal Ward byelection.