Make your vote count.

The average percentage of rates funding in Regional & Unitary councils for biodiversity is 5.59%. Auckland Council’s allocation is just 1.5%, making it the second lowest. This is inadequate to protect, restore and maintain the natural assets that can protect our communities from severe weather and a changing climate.  

More than 400,000 homes (worth $218 billion) are currently built on flood plains around the country – land that is appropriate for the prioritisation & implementation of nature-based solutions (such as wetlands, widened river corridors, native forest).  

More than 75% of New Zealanders live within 10km of the coast. The need to protect our coastlines and the adjacent infrastructure is clear. 

Councils have a key role to play in building resilience through nature-based solutions to climate change.

They can do this by investing in coastal, forest and wetland restoration, better managing council land, supporting landowners to protect nature on private and iwi land, creating room for rivers to flow naturally, by regulating activities that reduce resilience, and by appropriately zoning land to work with, not against, nature.

Do you think Auckland Councils biodiversity & environmental funding is adequate? 

Does Auckland Council have an up-to-date climate strategy and are you aware of it? How will you support its implementation? 

What are some of the biggest environmental issues facing Auckland? 

How can Council better enable nature-based solutions in Auckland? 

Where to ask these questions?

Ask these questions and more, at your local meet the candidate events, submit questions to local media, or send them directly to candidates via email or social media.