Local elections deliver New Zealand’s oldest mayoral line-up in recent history
“They say grey hairs are a sign of wisdom, so in that case I must be more than ready to lead Hamilton forward!” Tim Macindoe, Hamilton’s new mayor (and old political hand) quipped to the Herald. On that basis the country is awash in wisdom. Local elections earlier this month have ushered in the greyest cohort of big city mayors in recent memory.
Auckland’s Wayne Brown, 79, and Christchurch’s Phil Mauger, 67, were incumbents, while Wellington’s Andrew Little, 60, and Macindoe, 64, are both debutants, but only in the mayoral sense. Each spent more than a decade in central Government and held a range of Cabinet portfolios. Their average age is pushing 68.
Across the largest 10 New Zealand centres, the mayors’ average age has pushed up three-and-a-half years to 58.
Old Zealand beat New Zealand in local elections metaphorically and literally!
In 66 mayoral races, nearly half elected a new mayor based on high rates rise revolts – rate rises that were ironically caused because this Government dismantled 3 waters and pushed the costs onto locals – how is 3 Waters looking now rednecks?
Dr Bryce Edwards notes that right wing astro turf groups were highly effective in pushing their messages…
…Old Zealand beat New Zealand in local elections.
The damage the Right have inflicted upon local democracy is brutal and demands the Unions and Civil Society Institutes step up as the counter weight if we are to win the 2026 Election.
In the battle between Old Zealand and New Zealand in the 2026 election, Gen Xers are going to be the difference.
Look at the demographics.
Estimation for 2025 (or more recent)
If similar age proportions hold, then:
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If 60+ voters are ~28-30% of the voter roll, and
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Under-40 voters are ~35%,
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then in a total roll of ~3.6 million enrolled voters (approx current size), you’d expect:
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60+ voters ≈ ≈ 1.0 to 1.1 million
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18-40 voters ≈ ≈ 1.25 million
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Polling data tells us that you are more likely to be a reactionary redneck if you are over 60 (and male) and are far more likely to vote Left if you are 18-40 and female.
There are around 1.3million Kiwis aged between 40 and 60, that is Gen X, we are the ones who are going to be the decider in this election.
As a generation, do we want to side with the rednecks of Old Zealand or support New Zealand?
Thanks to our middle class woke activists during the social media cancel culture Lynch mobs, we drove many young men into the arms of the reactionary right, we need to show those men that there is a place on the Left for them.
Old Zealand trades in the spite and malice of culture war hate while in lockstep with the Billionaire class, the Banks, the speculators and the polluters, isn’t it time to break the power of these pricks?
It’s time for Gen X to step up.
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I guess when you are looking at the big picture you have to generalize however…
The size of your age cohort don’t mean shit. You have to get them to actually vote.
I’m a bang in the middle boomer and have voted at every single opportunity for 50 years. My very first vote was for the Values party.
You can have all the gens in the world but it’s the old grey hairs who decide things because we fuckin vote.
Yes it was so called boomers who created the Values Greens stopped the Viet Nam war and SA apardheid and attempted to kiss and make up over the treaty breaches.
A teacher tells me teenage guys like Act. Word from local teenage boys they are pissed old zealand men were enthrall to feminism.
in Selwyn the majority of astroturf candidates and voters are “Gen X”. Despite money, Nat party backing “Old Zealand” could barely manage a draw in their own backyard. You need to stop pushing the “generation divide” and accept it is about class – Toffs will vote for toffs regardless of age, and the middle class will vote for their own self interest regardless of how woke or not the left are.
And yes Sleepy H is right “it’s the old grey hairs who decide things because we fuckin vote.”
There’s a disturbing trend in Aotearoa and elsewhere that hates on boomers. The other comments here put it in perspective nicely. The years pass so quickly – before you know it, the boomer-adjacent generation will be the oldest generation and no doubt will be on the receiving end of envy and rancor from the younger ones.
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