Whoever gets the top job at our southernmost city council has a reputation to restore, a budget to balance and some big decisions to make.
Invercargill City Council has been plagued by controversy in recent years – “significant conflict” within the council prompted the government to intervene in 2020, and a new mayor in 2022 didn’t exactly cool things down. The seemingly endless dramas have been a source of embarrassment for this humble city, but with the controversial incumbent not seeking re-election, can a new mayor and refreshed council restore Invercargill’s reputation?
Why is Invercargill the best place in the world?
New Zealand’s southernmost city, home to 57,600 people, enjoys 16 hours of daylight in the height of summer. Queens Park is widely considered to be one of Aotearoa’s best public parks, Bill Richardson’s Transport World is a world-class attraction, and Bluff (the historic seaside settlement falls under ICC’s remit) is home to some damn fine oysters. Add in proximity to Rakiura/Stewart Island and all its natural splendour, plus the fact the economy’s booming, and you’ve got yourself a strong contender.
What is the contest?
Invercargill City Council (ICC) is made up of a mayor and 12 councillors, with a five-seat community board for Bluff and six spots on the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT). Two mana whenua representatives are appointed by council to give advice on key decisions, but don’t have voting rights (which is why one of them is now standing for council). Environment Southland is the overlapping regional council, looking after, as the name suggests, environmental matters.
This year, the race for mayor is wide open, with Nobby Clark – who in 2022 defeated nine-term mayor Tim Shadbolt – not seeking re-election after his controversial single term. A decent contest is shaping up, with eight candidates vying for the chains, and the competition for council is healthy too, with 27 (including two Alex Casey-verified celebrities) standing for 12 seats. Seven are going for the five Bluff Community Board seats and eight (again, including two Alex Casey-verified celebrities) for the six ILT vacancies.
Queens Park, an Invercargill gem (Photo: George Driver)
Who is in the race?
Half the mayoral candidates are sitting councillors. If she won, Ria Bond, a first-term councillor who also stood for mayor in 2022, would prioritise cutting costs on non-essential projects, driving regional development opportunities and looking into mixed funding models. A former hairdresser and president of the national hairdressers’ association, Bond, who has spoken of her difficult childhood, moved to Invercargill as a teenager. She was a New Zealand First MP from 2015 to 2017, coming in off the list after Winston Peters won the Northland byelection, and was recently part of the People’s Select Committee on Pay Equity. As a councillor, she laid a complaint against Clark after he repeated a racial slur in an interview with Guy Williams on New Zealand Today.
Current deputy mayor Tom Campbell was elected on Clark’s “Let’s Go Invercargill” ticket in 2022, and was acting mayor for several months while Clark recovered from a heart attack and heart surgery in late 2023. He’s not running for a council spot this year, with his heart set on the top job. If he got it, Campbell says he’d be focused on driving efficiency in council, and developing water service organisation. A Scottish chartered engineer who moved to Invercargill in 1981, Campbell is a former chief executive of Tiwai Point smelter and chair of Crown entities GNS and EECA. He reckons he hasn’t taken a sick day in 20 years.
Third-term councillor Alex Crackett, an Invercargill local who co-chairs LGNZ’s Young Elected Members Committee, has quit the marketing job she’s been juggling with councillor duties to focus on nabbing the mayoralty this year, so she means business too. If elected, she would prioritise cutting inefficiencies and investing in core services, as well as restoring Invercargill’s pride and reputation. Crackett has spoken out about the sexist comments and threats of violence she’s had to deal with over her three terms.
The four sitting councillors running for mayor, from top left, Tom Campbell, Alex Crackett, Ian Pottinger and Ria Bond
Fifth-term councillor Ian Pottinger, also an Invercargill local, would focus on infrastructure, community resilience and tackling wasteful spending if he got the top job. In the current term, Pottinger has repeatedly clashed with Nobby Clark, laying a complaint (alongside Ria Bond) after the mayor’s “train-wreck” interview with Guy Williams, and calling for his resignation after a separate external complaint was made. Clark demoted Pottinger from his role as a committee chair in 2024. Pottinger has also clashed with another councillor and made a couple of controversial comments. Asked by the Otago Daily Times how he envisaged working with others in council, especially those who didn’t agree with him, Pottinger said, “By meditation and medication.”
The other candidates are Tom Morton, a 60-something TikToker who advocates for affordable housing; Stevey Chernishov, “a visionary leader dedicated to sparking transformation across southern New Zealand”; Gordon McCrone, who was banned from a mayoral debate due to disturbing content on his website; and Andrew Clark, who has a “frosty relationship” with his brother Nobby (yes, the outgoing current mayor) and who is simultaneously making his sixth bid for mayor of Tasman, where he lives, under his middle name Maxwell.
Nine of the 12 current councillors are standing again, and outgoing mayor Nobby Clark is also seeking a spot on council. Other notable candidates include broadcaster Marcus Lush, who was elected to council in a 2021 byelection but stood only for mayor (unsuccessfully) in 2022, and Noel Peterson, AKA the green wizard of Bluff.
From left, Alex Crackett, Andrew Clark, Ian Pottinger, Stevey Chernishov, Ria Bond, Tom Campbell and Tom Morton at a candidates debate chaired by Duncan Garner on August 19 (Photo: Screengrab)
What is at stake?
The balance between keeping rates affordable and investing in infrastructure for the future will be a key challenge for Invercargill City Council in the years ahead, as it will for councils everywhere. An average rates rise of 7.11% was agreed on for the 2025/26 financial year, lower than the forecast 9.47%, with savings made by reducing a proposed increase of depreciation funding for sewerage and stormwater. This means future councils will have to implement higher rates increases. According to the council’s pre-election report, around $6.5 million of operational savings are needed for the annual plan to be delivered. “The next council will need to work to return to a balanced budget at the same time as increased rates will be needed to fund essential water-related costs, fund museum operations, and respond to other issues. There will be limited funding for other activities.”
Water is a big issue for Invercargill, which is the only major population hub in New Zealand that does not have an alternative water supply: it relies on a single source, the Branxholme plant, fed by the Ōreti River. “This puts the resilience of the city at risk in an earthquake or severe drought scenario that disrupts the supply from the river,” according to the pre-election report. Last month councillors voted against fast-tracking the favoured alternative site.
Under central government’s Local Water Done Well requirements, the council opted to keep three waters services in house. “The next three years will be focused on the transition to this new approach,” said the pre-election report. “Water rates are expected to increase sharply to recover costs for increased delivery, both now and to put money aside for the future.”
Some Invercargill highlights (Photos: George Driver, Getty Images)
Wastewater discharge at Bluff has been a contentious issue: with resource consent set to expire, late last year the council opted for a short-term renewal to wait and see what the government’s RMA changes entailed, rather than accepting a mana whenua-backed working group’s recommendation to apply for a 25-year consent that would see wastewater diverted through a wetland. At a mayoral candidate debate last month, Pottinger, who voted against the short-term renewal along with Bond, said it was the worst decision he’d seen made in his 15 years on council, and alleged what could have been a $7m cost would become upwards of $30m. Campbell and Crackett, who voted for the short-term option, said he was scaremongering.
Te Unua Museum of Southland, set to open next year as a replacement for the city’s quake-prone museum that closed in 2018, has also been a source of discontent, with Pottinger being a vocal critic of cost blowouts.
Amalgamation is another big issue: the Local Government Commission is currently investigating a proposal to merge the four Southland councils (Invercargill City Council, Southland District Council, Gore District Council and Environment Southland) into two unitary authorities, one rural and one for Invercargill city. Campbell, Crackett and Pottinger support a merger, with Bond taking a wait-and-see approach.
The race in a sentence?
Desperately seeking stability for the south.
The nitty gritty
The Invercargill City Council election is voted under the first past the post system. Voting papers are arriving this week. The last day to enrol (for a special vote) is October 10. Your vote needs to be received by midday on Saturday October 11. Read more race briefings and other Spinoff coverage of the local elections here.