1989 Christchurch mayoral election

1989 Christchurch mayoral election

← 1986 14 October 1989 1992 →
Turnout	121,295 (60.37%)
Candidate Vicki Buck Morgan Fahey Margaret Murray Party Independent United Citizens Christchurch Action Popular vote 63,025 30,662 25,387 Percentage 51.96 25.27 20.92
Mayor before election Hamish Hay Elected Mayor Vicki Buck
Councillors
All 24 seats on the City Council 13 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader % Seats +/– United Citizens Dennis Rich 30.84 7 −3 Labour Alex Clark 21.80 7 −2 Christchurch Action Margaret Murray 26.29 6 New Independents for Papanui ward Des King & Gordon Freeman 4.54 2 New Independent N/A 15.81 2 +2 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results by ward

The 1989 Christchurch mayoral election was part of the New Zealand local elections held that same year. In 1989, election were held for the Mayor of Christchurch plus other local government positions. The polling was conducted using the standard first-past-the-post voting method.

Background

Sitting Mayor Hamish Hay retired and was succeeded by Labour Party councillor Vicki Buck who became Christchurch's first female mayor.^[1]

There was deadlock on the city council with a four-way split in its membership. The Labour Party won a plurality of seats with eight seats, the United Citizens won seven, the new Christchurch Action ticket with six seats and the remaining three seats won by independent candidates. Prior to the election there was a schism on the right wing Citizens' Association resulting in two conservative tickets running against each other.^[2] Christchurch Action was set up, comprising former councillors from districts that merged with the city as part of the 1989 local government reforms.^[3]

Results

The following table gives the election results:

Ward results

As part of the 1989 local government Reforms the amount of local government wards increased from 5 to 12 with each ward electing 2 members, as opposed to the 4 (or 3 in the case of the west ward) that wards previously elected. The size of the council also increased from 19 to 24.

The Christchurch Action team was founded on 13 August by Margaret Murray, its goals were based on improving city services, additional police, and improving efficiency of the council.^[5]

There were changes in political affiliations during the council term. Carole Evans, councillor for the West Ward who ran under the Citizens' team in 1986 ran as an independent. Two sitting councillors from the abolished Waimairi district council, Gordon Freeman and Des King, stood under the Independents for Papanui ward team. Phillip Carter, who was the son of councillor and deputy mayor Maurice Carter ran for the Action team as opposed to his fathers affiliation of Citizens.

Aftermath

Buck was elected the first ever female mayor of Christchurch and 4 women were elected to the council. Margaret Murray and Morgan Fahey both conceded in a friendly manner in person on the night. Morgan Fahey, her nearest opponent, became the Deputy mayor.

Despite losing the Mayoralty, Action performed very well and Citzens' lost its overall majority on council. There was accusations that Action split the centre-right vote and lead to no overall control on council. Because of the Citzens' animosity towards the action team Labour and Citzens' formed an alliance on the council which resulted in Action missing out on a fair share of committee chairmanships.^[6][9]

Dennis Rich retained his position as team leader after the election but Labour's team leader Alex Clark was replaced by Pegasus councillor David Close after Clark expressed a preference to focus on his regional council seat. Clark was also unable to secure a committee chairmanship, even in transport despite his advocacy for a city owned bus company.^[9]

Although Labour candidate Arthur Adcock had won on election night by a margin of 19 votes, independent Mike Stevens refused to concede and sought multiple rounds of recounts, eventually resulting in Adcock losing his seat to Stevens^[7]. This meant Labour's election night plurality of seats was also lost. There was also legal action in the Papanui ward over the nature of election material.^[10]

Mayor Buck initially tried to get councillors to sit in alphabetical order next to each other, however, councillors ended up moving their own name plates around to sit in party/team blocs.^[11]

References

• v
• t
• e

Christchurch City Council

Civic offices

• Christchurch Land Office (1862–1887)
• Our City (1887–1924)
• Civic (1924–1980)
• Tuam Street civic offices (1980–2010)
• Hereford Street civic offices (2010–present)

Companies and assets

held through CCHL (ownership percentage)	City Care (100%) Ecocentral Ltd (100%) Enable Networks (100%) Christchurch Airport (75%) Lyttelton Port Company (79.3%) Orion New Zealand (89.3%) Red Bus (100%)
other assets	Art Gallery Botanic Gardens Bus Interchange Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings Canterbury Museum Hagley Park McDougall Art Gallery New Brighton Pier Sign of the Kiwi Sign of the Takahe Town Hall Tūranga Wastewater Treatment Plant
former assets	Bus Exchange Christchurch Central Library Christchurch Convention Centre Queen Elizabeth II Park

Services

• Christchurch City Libraries
• The Shuttle

Chairman (1862–1868)

• John Hall
• John Ollivier
• Isaac Luck
• Edward Bishop
• William Wilson

Mayors (1868–present)

elected by councillors

William Wilson John Anderson Andrew Duncan James Jameson Henry Sawtell Edward Bishop Michael Hart Fred Hobbs

elected at large

Fred Hobbs James Gapes Henry Thomson Charles Thomas Ick James Gapes (2nd) George Ruddenklau Charles Hulbert Aaron Ayers Charles Louisson Samuel Manning Charles Gray William Prudhoe Eden George Thomas Gapes Walter Cooper Harry Beswick Walter Cooper (2nd) Charles Louisson (2nd) William Reece Arthur Rhodes Henry Wigram Charles Mathew Gray (2nd) John Hall George Payling Charles Allison Thomas Taylor John Joseph Dougall1 Henry Holland Henry Thacker James Flesher Rev John Archer Dan Sullivan John Beanland Robert Macfarlane Ernest Andrews Robert Macfarlane (2nd) George Manning Ron Guthrey Neville Pickering Hamish Hay Vicki Buck Garry Moore Bob Parker Lianne Dalziel Phil Mauger

Mayoral elections

annual term	1875† 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882† 1883 1884† 1885† 1886 1887† 1888† 1889† 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897† 1898† 1899† 1901† 1902† 1903† 1904† 1905 1906† 1907† 1908 1909 1910† 1911 1912 1913 1914
biennial term	1915 1917 1919 1921 1923 1925 1927 1929 1931 1933
triennial term	1935 1936‡ 1938 1941 1944 1947 1950 1953 1956 1958‡ 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022

• † Elected unopposed
• ‡ By-election
• ¹ appointed following death of incumbent