Abolish DHB elections

National should abolish DHB elections. They are a farce.

I just saw on Backbenches an MP admit they could not name a single candidate for the DHB. Most NZers woud be the same.

Elections required informed voting, and there just simply isn’t enough coverage of DHBs to inform NZers. People win purely on name recognition, or because they are a doctor, or they write a nice 200 word blurb.

I’m about as politically aware as anyone, and my DHB votes will be based on extremely flimsy grounds.

I think it is important to have community representation, but would do it via indirect elections.

In each DHB area, have an electoral college consisting of the local Mayors and Deputy Mayors. People can apply to them to be a community representative, they can get interviewed by the electoral college, and then choices are made.