Unconventional candidates shake up New Zealand's local body elections

NZ Herald

08-08-2025

'We have had a guts full'
Josh Harford of the Silly Hat Party is running for the Wellington mayoralty, with policies including the creation of a lazy river down Courtenay Place.
Along with less jesting and more joshing, optimism is one of the three main pillars of Harford's unconventional platform under a party whose ultimate aim is to turn the capital away from the New Zealand dollar to a chocolate fish economy.
'We know how important optimism is to daily life', he wrote on his campaign website.
'This is why we are mandating optimism in all areas of government, starting with council.'
This would be achieved through ice plunges on the city's waterfront, to increase Wellingtonians' appreciation of their city's beauty, along with the criminalisation of slow walking and the eradication of the vigorously growing agapanthus plant.
'[This is] to prevent punching down on plants that can't stand up for themselves.'
Agapanthus plants are in the Silly Hat Party's sights at this local body election.
A lazy river along the city's premier entertainment street, rain dances to ensure sunny skies, and sails to redirect Wellington's wind to Upper Hutt are also promised, as is legally enforcing 'no hat, no play' through fines of two chocolate fish or 38 star jumps dished out by the Ministry of Fun Police.
Giant eels and moa transport
Pennywize the Rewilding Clown wants to be Wellington's next mayor.
Fellow unorthodox candidate Pennywize the Rewilding Clown is also sizing up the capital's mayoral chains, with a suite of policies mixing comedy and critique in true court jester tradition.
Herds of moa on land and giant eels in the water would be harnessed to revolutionise public transport and tackle congestion, according to the clown's website, which is run by campaign manager James Barber.
Wellington mayoral candidate Pennywize the Rewilding Clown's vision for future public transport in Wellington involves moa and giant tuna (eel) travel via land and waterways, as shown in this artist's impression. Image / voteitforwellington.wordpress.com
The trailblazing breakthroughs needed to reverse extinction/ genetically enhance each species respectively would come from 'the prowess of our smartest scientists, who have been poorly treated and neglected by the current coalition Government', Pennywize wrote.
'Genetically enhanced tuna [eels] will be our awa [river] tuna – you will no longer rumble down Adelaide Rd on a lurching double-decker bus, you will be surging up and down the Waitangi awa on the backs of giant tuna.
'To complement this on the flat lands, we will have our … moa pathways. No longer will the golden mile be a traffic jam … you will instead be leaping on the back of a passing moa.'
A campaign image on Pennywize the Rewilding Clown's website showing an artist's impression of the Basin area of Wellington as a swamp again, along with extinct birds that the clown candidate hopes to revive as the city's mayor. Image / Jerome O'Connor
Pennywize also offered a solution to Wellington's water-pipe woes by returning the city's Basin to swamp, which would include 'daylighting the entirety of the Waitangi awa'.
'At the moment, this awa runs in three pipes under the road, creating pressure on our storm-water network. Daylighting will tackle the problems of extreme flood.'
Carpet roads, sandfly wing bans and a secret hospital
Dunedin mayoral candidate Flynn Nisvett, of the Silly Hat Party, wants a heater on every street in the city except student haven Castle St. Photo / sillyhatparty.org.nz
Meanwhile, Dunedin voters are also being offered a serving of Silly Hat Party joviality, with mayoral candidate Flynn Nisvett promising he'll 'never back down in fighting for a Dunner Stunner'.
'I refuse to believe Dunedin needs to be this cold all of the time', Nisvett wrote on Silly Hat's campaign website, promising to carpet roads, a community-wide effort to knit a blanket over the Octagon and put heaters on every street except – for unexplained reasons – the student haven of Castle St.
'With our full unemployment, all-week weekend policy, people will need something to do. The blanket will ensure everybody is contributing and will make going to town much safer for the student population, who are often cold and sickly.'
An all-in community project to knit a blanket over Dunedin's Octagon would make going to town much safer for the "often cold and sickly" student population, says Dunedin mayoral candidate Flynn Nisvett. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Taking inspiration from the Government's gang patch ban, his mayoralty would also mandate Ministry of Fun Police seizing the wings of sandflies at the beach, Nisvett wrote.
He also promised a new 'secret Dunedin Hospital' because it was 'nobody else's business what the doctor does to you'.
Mullet Muzz and The Flag Man
Another character working to capture voters' attention before October's election is former New Plymouth mayoral candidate Murray McDowell, who is seeking a seat in the New Plymouth District Council's Kaitake-Ngāmotu ward under the name Mullet Muzz McDowell.
'That took some doing getting my name recorded like that,' he told RNZ.
If elected, he'd apply his one simple policy – 'honesty', the former truck and trailer operator said.
Mullet Muzz McDowell is running for a seat on the New Plymouth District Council in the Kaitake-Ngāmotu ward in this October's local body elections. Photo / Facebook
Among McDowell's rivals is Mike Morresey, known as The Flag Man thanks to the 6m Taranaki Bulls flag he's waved at the side's games for decades.
The Bulls' super fan promised a practical, community-first approach if elected – and not to use his outside voice, RNZ reported.
'I'll have to be a little quieter … but I'm very passionate about my community.'
The anywhere mayor
Over the water in Tasman, a man calling himself Max Clark is running for mayor.
But the same man, this time switching from his middle name, Maxwell, to his first name, Andrew, is also on the mayoral ticket in Invercargill, at the opposite end of the South Island.
Add to that, his brother Nobby Clark is the sitting mayor.
The double dip has turned heads in the southern city, including that of the sitting mayor, who is himself familiar with controversy after using the n-word and making a homophobic slur in a TV interview, and later commenting on a female MC's appearance and competence at a United Fire Brigades' Association event.
'I thought he was taking the mickey', Nobby Clark – who isn't seeking re-election – told RNZ.
Andrew Clark is running for mayoralty in both Tasman and Invercargill – where his brother Nobby Clark, the current mayor, is not seeking re-election. Screenshot / Herald NOW
But Tasman-based Clark told Ryan Bridge on Herald NOW he was capable of doing both jobs 'if that's what the public would like', and saw 'huge advantages' in both councils – each carrying debt – having his knowledge and experience.
He'd pay for his flights up and down the island, Clark said on Friday.
'Is it any different from MPs in one area flying up to Wellington for four days of the week and doing their business and going back home? Not really, in my view.'
High-profile local body contenders
Others joining the race to local leadership this October include former Green MP Nandor Tanczos, a current Whakatāne District councillor who is among six vying for the eastern Bay of Plenty district's mayoralty.
And former MP Jami-Lee Ross last week announced he was running for Auckland's Howick Local Board in the Flat Bush subdivision.
The former National Party whip – whose time in Parliament was dogged by allegations of bullying and sexual harassment – quit the party in 2018 while on the verge of being kicked out after a report concluded he was most likely the leaker of confidential party information, something he's always denied.
Former MP Jami-Lee Ross pictured during his 2022 trial over accusations he helped facilitate an illegal political donation. Ross was eventually aquitted. File photo / Jason Oxenham
Ross later accused former party leader Simon Bridges of orchestrating a cover-up of a donation fraud – denied by Bridges and National – with Ross later acquitted in a Serious Fraud Office trial over two $100,000 donations to the party.
In 2023, Newsroom reported Ross was running escort agency Sapphire Blue, with accusations that some workers weren't being kept safe or supported, which Ross denied.
Luke Mealamu (right), pictured with fellow Auckland Council candidate Vicky Hau. Mealamu, brother of former All Black Keven Mealamu, and Hau are running under Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's Fix Auckland ticket.
Several other high-profile Kiwis are chasing electoral triumph this year, including broadcaster Marcus Lush (Invercargill City Council seat), actor, writer and director Oscar Kightley (Henderson-Massey Local Board) and former TVNZ Europe correspondent Mark Crysell (Waitematā Local Board).
Meanwhile, the brother of former All Black Keven Mealamu – former Samoan rugby international Luke Mealamu, who now owns a large security firm – is standing for Auckland Council's Manukau ward under Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's Fix Auckland ticket.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.