Purpose: Initiatives to encourage minority communities to engage in political life.
Stimulus/Rationale:
Local elections take place in New Zealand every three years. Since 2016 Auckland’s election campaigns have been developed to appeal to those traditionally less likely to vote.
Process:
In 2016 the city sought feedback on it from ethnically diverse focus groups and adapted the messages to appeal to specific communities, including the Māori, Pacific, Chinese and Rainbow communities. New Zealand Sign Language videos were also produced to cover candidate and voter information.
The 2016 Election Engagement Programme included 80 community events involving diverse communities, including people with disabilities, of different faiths (Jewish and Muslim), LGBT people, children and young people, different nationalities (Korean, Chinese, African, Indian, Tongan, Samoan) as well as smaller communities such as Shri Lankan, Somalian, Ethiopian, Rwandan, Filipino, West Indian, Burmese, Cambodian and Japanese. The ‘Love Bus’, a mobile information hub, attended these events over a 3 month period. Presentations were given at ESOL classes across Auckland and 24 engagement events included one or more interpreters. Languages included Hindi (4), Korean (3), Mandarin (14), Cambodian (1), Somalian (1), Samoan (1), Tongan (1), NZSL (1).
Auckland also carried out research on the diversity of the candidate pool for the local body elections and compared that to the diversity of elected members. This provides a benchmark to support work on encouraging candidates from all communities.
Since then this process has continued.
In 2019 there was a focus on engaging young people with school children learning about how the Council works, then being given an opportunity to vote for real candidates on real issues and compare their votes to the election results.
In 2022 election information was translated into English and eight other languages including sign language.
Key reference documents: Vote Auckland 2022 website
