The four new faces on the Ashburton District Council are ready to get to work.
While three had to wait for the election results last weekend, Phil Everest has known he was going to be on the council since early August.
“I’m just keen to get into now and do my bit for the community,” Everest said.
“It’ll be good to finally get into it, and I’m looking forward to it.’
Richard Wilson, who will sit on the council for his second term, was another in the Eastern Ward to win a seat unopposed.
In the Western Ward, new mayor Liz McMillan was the highest polling candidate – for a fourth straight election – but as she won the mayoralty both Jeanette Maxwell and Deb Gilkison became councillors.
Maxwell has been busy on the farm with lambing and feeding calves, with tailing set to begin, and now she can throw in being inducted as a councillor to the mix.
“I’ll just juggle all that and make it work.”
She has told her husband and her son what days I’ll be off the farm and knows “I’ll be flat out the days I’m back”.
The former Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre chairperson and national board member is enthusiastic to get back into policy work, although now it’s in a decision-making role rather than advocacy.
“It’s going to be different. Feds is kind of similar, but it was the other side of the table.”
Gilkison was pleased with the result, even if it needed “A bit of good luck” with McMillan’s win but is “looking forward to getting stuck in”.
One of the biggest reasons she stood for council was to bring younger voices to the table, and she will do that as the youngest councillor.
“Our council needs a wider range of perspectives, and younger people deserve to see themselves represented in the decisions shaping their future.”
Julie Moffett is the new councillor on the Ashburton Ward, polling fifth behind the four incumbents – Phill Hooper, Carolyn Cameron, Tony Todd, and Russell Ellis.
“I’m getting more excited about things as it dawns on me,” Moffett said.
She thanked those who voted for her, especially “those who continue to exercise their democratic right to vote, in times where public interest in elections is waning”.
“I hope to look at ways to educate and involve people from all walks of life in the district to use their voice and realise the power of their vote.
“First, I’ll have a bit to learn as a first-time councillor.
“It’s always an unknown voting in a first-term councillor, so I’m aware of the responsibility to repay that faith.”
After the start of the induction process this week, Ashburton’s four new councillors will be off to Local Government NZ’s session for new councillors in Christchurch on October 24.
The new council will be sworn in on October 29.
